It seems that lately my posts all should begin with, "it's been a long time." Life has continued at its chaotic pace and I have not had the time or energy to write. But today is Saturday, and though I have a thousand and one things to do, I had the urge to write so I made the opportunity.

Work has continued to be very stressful but the reasons have changed. I have gotten used to the type of students I have and they got used to me. I still had problems on a daily basis and that is because they have problems on a daily basis. I continue to love and feel called to teach this type of student. Their lives are in such turmoil, much like mine always was. They are economically challenged, like I have been at points in my life. My parents were never really rich, but through most of my life were making a comfortable amount of money. When I was a child, that wasn't the case but we always had what we needed because my mom was extremely thrifty, great with a budget, and responsible. Both of my parents worked really hard. Then there was a time where they both had great paying jobs and we lived comfortably. But when I was a teenager, my dad became disabled and my mom was supporting us. A lot of my students have situations where one parent/guardian is taking care of them and their siblings. Often they have one person taking care of multiple families. By the time they get in high school, they are also working to provide for their families. In some cases, I have found that there are no parents or guardians and the high school student is the caregiver. They have rough lives and school is often the last thing they can deal with. The problem lately has not been the students but the disorganization within our school. We have had so many new teachers (myself included) this year, as well as new principals, that we have not been able to be a cohesive group. The saying goes, "it takes a village to raise a child." Well, I'm here to say, it takes an entire school to teach a child. If all of the aspects of the school are not aligned, the school does not run smoothly.

The best part is that our school knows of the fragmentation and we are going to be working on being a cohesive group for next year. It would be so much worse if the school was not aware of its own problems.

Outside of work, life has continued at its crazy pace. My parents took a vacation for the first time in 10 years and my dad had to be hospitalized. He is ok now but had another round with MRSA staph, which was in his leg this time. They got home safely and both parents are recovering from their vacation. :o)

One of the happiest things that happened to me recently was that I became a mother! I am the proud mommy of a pekingese puppy! His name is Earnest Hemingway and we call him Earnie. Now before you spelling police get me, I know that Ernest Hemingway did not have an "a" in his first name. We got Earnie in Hearne and wanted to pay homage to his origins. I found him at a shelter while doing a professional development. Our teacher coach sent us around town because one of the disconnects the teachers have with students is that most of the teachers live outside of Hearne. So she wanted us to discover the town to relate to the kids. And while on our hunt, I found a treasure! The teacher coach was very sneaky and sent animal lovers to the shelter. He was so sweet! He came right up to me and licked my foot. Steven and I have wanted a dog since we got married but were waiting for the time to be right. I would never make a decision so big without Steven so of course, I had to go home and see what he thought. I could not stop thinking about this dog! So Steven went the next day to check him out for himself and we came home with a sweet, very mischievous, and very cuddly puppy. He's about 9 months old they think and other than that, we don't know much about his life. He was a stray but was only at the shelter a week. It was a no kill shelter but the conditions weren't great. He ended up needing to be dewormed and had ear infections (despite the shelter saying he had been dewormed and was seen by a vet) but he's doing much better know. I look forward to seeing him every day. He has definitely made our lives brighter and keeps us on our toes. No matter how sure we are that everything is off of the floor, he still finds what we have missed!

Here are a few pictures from our visit to my sister's house. We are going to be trying to get a camera of our own soon but she was nice to let us use her's so we could get some pictures of our boy and not have to wait. He's so cute when he smiles!!