Prom Season

What a few months this has been. TSA Prom was last night and if you had asked me in January how we were going to pull this off, I would have told you that we could not. We were bumped from our traditional location by the Allman Brother's wanting to do a concert. So of course the city of Macon agreed to a concert and bumped both Proms scheduled at the City Auditorium this weekend. I found another venue and have spent the past 4 months assuring them it would be ok. Well, it was more than o.k, it was FANTASTIC. We really did transform that place into a "Night Under the Grecian Moon". The column groupings anchoring the dance floor were the highlight along with the entry way with benches and a working fountain. Thanks to all my moms and dads who helped make this happen, I am now going to sleep for several days and I took Monday off since I have worked every Saturday since February!!!!:)

Book Review

So, I have been reading Five Cities That Ruled the World by Douglas Wilson. I was really anticipating this book because I am a history teacher and I have heard positive things about Douglas Wilson's books. But, this was a difficult book to read. The premise made me really excited. A look at 5 cities that have played an enormous role in the world both in its history and the world today. Jerusalem, Rome, Athens, London, and New York are all fascinating cities at how they have been founded and their role in world history. I was immediately drawn into the book as it begins with Jerusalem and the way the city was founded. It was neat to me as a Christian to see the Jewish, Christian and Muslim founding of the city. This city is the birthplace of three of the world's religions and its history was fascinating. Rome and Athens were interesting as well, but after that the book became difficult and dry to read. This is a book that I fear only historians and people with a deep love of history will find interesting. While the initial reading was interesting and held my attention, as the book moved further in, to me it read like a history textbook and not something that I would find as pleasure reading. The premise of the book is good, take 5 cities and show how they have ruled the world. However, in the execution, the story got dragged down and seemed like a chore to read. I learned several things that I did not know, but overall this book was a chore to read. I really do not recommend this book to anyone except those with a deep love of history or a professor of history.

To The Makers of Cortisone Shots

BLESS YOU!!! I had a shot today and already can tell a huge difference. My mom even said my face looked like I was out of the majority of pain. Here is the back story for you.

16 years ago when I was a mere middle schooler, I tore my patella tendon away from the knee cap. Now, this is the tendon on the outside of your leg that keeps your knee in place and allows you the proper turning motion that you are supposed to have in your leg. Thanks to the wonderful medical genes of my parents, I have weak knees apparently to begin with. This injury did not help.

Fast forward almost 2 years to the Summer of 1994. Summer after 9th grade. Looking forward to getting braces off and a driver's permit. But, alas, I got the braces off but my reward for that was knee surgery to repair the patella because scans showed I had stopped growing at 5' 71/2". So, surgery is commenced on a mid June day. Now, with this surgery, you are in a knee immobilizer for 2 weeks. It does just that, you can't move your knee, that and they have torn the tissue and have not bent your knee either. So, the day I am allowed to take a shower/bath unaided by my mother, the great flood of '94 occurs and there goes our water for 21 days. That's right, no water for 21 DAYS!!!!! I did get a shower at a friends house several times a week, but no ice at therapy and no whirlpool.

Fast forward about 12 years. Having knee pain so I return to the doctor who did the surgery. After a MRI, it is determined that I no longer have cartilage between my knee and bone and so its bone rubbing bone every step I take. I can tolerate this since I am too young for knee replacement.

Backtrack a few months, knee is again swelling and causing pain, but I am living with it. Then comes the fateful night a few weeks ago where Barney ran into my knee running full speed ahead on accident. I think his head hurt worse than my knee that night, but it did lasting damage to me.

Which brings me to today. I love my doctor. He is the original surgeon and we go back over half my life. Kinda scary to me to think he has been treating my family that long with our various knee problems. Dad (2 replacements and a tune up in one knee) Sister (2 patella reattachment's) and me. Today, he offered me two options, pain meds or drain the knee and a cortisone shot.

Much as I hate needles, I chose the drain the fluid and the shot. Not watching, I held my breath while he drained 2 vials of fluid and gave me a cortisone shot. Except for some achiness across my knee and stiffness, I have no pain from the actual knee and swelling is already going down!!!! Like I said, bless the men with the cortisone idea. If winter will ever end around here, I can get back to walking in my neighborhood which I love to do!!

When will it ever be Spring

I am tired of cold weather. Normally by this time, we are beginning to enjoy the onset of Spring with highs in the 60s and lows in the 40s and the promise of Spring coming. Not this winter!! Today the high did not reach 50 and while it was sunny, there was a 20 mph wind and it was COLD. Tonight's low is supposed to be 25!!!! What happened to an early Spring that was depicted by Gen. Lee on Groundhogs Day????!!!??? I think we need a new southern groundhog.

School is going really well. This time of year gets busy as Spring sports begin and people begin looking forward to Spring Break. I know I am. We are headed somewhere to celebrate me being done with my Masters and my sister being finished with her PhD. By this time next week, Angie will be Dr. Angie. (So proud of you big sis!!!!)

Prom is heating up with the first workshop this weekend. The invitations came in this week, the senior girls will love them. And face it, they are the only ones who care about that. This Prom is at a new location so I am apprehensive, but I think it will be good.

Beginning to plan for the summer, and aside from spending a week in Gettysburg at a conference, I have a whole lot of nothing planned. This will be the first summer since I started teaching that I have NO SCHOOL!!!!!!! Super excited about lazy days and reading as much as I want when I want without feeling guilty. Besides, I have a stack of books (27 to be exact) that I got at the Library's Old Book Sale last weekend and there is a new used bookstore in town that I am building a store credit with!!! Super Excited.

Now if warmer weather would just get here!!!!

Life

I really have to do a better job with posting, but life always seems to get in the way. The past week and this week leading up to Winter Break are extremely busy for me. Last Tuesday night, TSA had the first ever PINK OUT at a basketball game to benefit the Susan G. Komen Foundation. We raised over 1800.00!!!! The gym was decked out in pink. The basketball players, girls and guys, wore pink shoelaces and armbands, and athletic tape. The place looked like the church from Steel Magnolias. It was pink and pink!!!!! It was a great turnout and everyone had lots of fun.

The next day it was off to the ATL with the 8th graders to visit the Capital, the Varsity (whadda ya have, whadda ya have) and the Civil War Cyclorama. The kids had a great time and represented the school well. They wanted to know why the representatives did not get in trouble for talking over the speaker. I explained to them that it was politics. We met the governor and had our picture taken with him. Then it was off to the varsity for lunch. After ingesting much grease, it was time to go see the Cyclorama. This is a 42 foot tall painting depicting the Civil War battle for Atlanta. It was amazing and the kids really enjoyed it.

Friday afternoon brought on the trip to go see the prom venue. I had never been in this building, so I was apprehensive, but it will be a good location.

This week brings Region Basketball tournament, another prom meeting, and Y-Club Valentine Balloons. Thankfully I get a 4 day weekend!!!!! Hope to hear about a summer study position in PA this week as well!

Listen to the rythmn of the falling rain

That's right, its raining again in Macon. I guess we should not complain since we are finally out of a years long drought. But, just once I would like to go seven whole days with no rain or clouds. Some weeks we forget what the sun looks like. Today's weather has been troubling. It was 72 degrees outside at 6:00 p.m in January!!! Needless to say, the dog has been in a tizzy all day because of the coming storms. The storms have started and he has seemed to calm down some. Now, we are listening to the rain.

This past week has been a strange one. It seems that God is throwing things at me to test me and see how I respond. I have had lots of things going on and Thursday topped them all. Its prom time, well planning time at least, and I had a meeting Thursday night with my parents. Now, I found out Thursday morning that our location had bumped us to the next weekend and I was just now finding out. We could not do the next weekend due to state track meet and grad nite at Disney World for the seniors. So, 8 hours before my meeting, we had no place to have Prom. Thankfully, I found a venue in town and it is now booked for us!!! Also have the d.j booked, so that takes some stress off. By the way, found this out in the middle of teaching a class when an administrator came and told me.

But, Friday was a bright spot in the week, even if the sun did not shine (see above). Our school had a "Hats for Haiti" day where students could donate a dollar and wear a hat. We raised over 700 dollars. So excited!!!

Plus, the people of Massachusetts voted and Scott Brown is headed to the Senate!! Never thought I would see the day where a political revolution like this would gain traction in that state. But, we have to remember, our country was birthed there and they were the original "Tea Partiers"!!!

One of those days

WARNING: This is long, I need to vent before I can sleep.

Do you ever have one of those days? I did today. It was like the day in the children's book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. The day started off like any other, get ready for work, get out the door and head to school. As I was driving, listening to Lisa and Eric on K-Love as usual, they were talking about some list of the 200 best jobs to have. I kept wondering where teaching fell on the list and I thought about what I loved about my job. I can honestly say that I love my job. I love all (o.k, almost all) aspects of it. I think the thing I love the most is connecting with the kids and as they talked, I thought to myself, I may never know this side of heaven which kids I have impacted, but that was ok. I really do love my job. Then, I got to school...

It was not one thing that made the day bad, it was a multitude of small things that added up as the day went on to where I was counting the minutes till 3:15. First, my room was cold. My room recently is always cold. I am so tired of cold weather and having a classroom that I cannot keep warm. Then my first hour class had absolutely no interest in what we were talking about. Forget that I am trying to help them learn something that is semi-important. I mean, you do need to know about American history and the Civil War. After that, the downhill train was off and running. No class was particularly bad, it was just little aggravations that normally do not bother me, that today set me on edge.

Then came fourth period. Now, I am a stickler for the rules in the classroom. Its the only way to keep control and my students know that and have known it since day one. One of the HUGE no nos in my room is cell phones. Forget the fact that they are not supposed to have them at school to begin with. I took one up almost immediately for texting in class. About 30 minutes later, one boy has his out ON HIS DESK TEXTING!!! And you think I am not going to take your phone up as well?????? Hello, lets use some common sense here. So, I turn the phones over to the principal to deal with.

But, it keeps on heading down hill. My afternoon classes did not seem to remember, really none of my classes have, that we are no longer on Christmas vacation and that its time to get back into school. We are allowed to give homework and tests, it what we do as teachers! My students have no interest in being at school, are lazy, and generally seem to not care and that makes me mad. I work my tail off to prepare for them and they don't care.

So, I left everything on my desk in a true Scarlet O' Hara moment and said at 3:50 that it would all be there in the morning. That's when my day got better. I went home and as I walked in the door, my lovable dog Barney was there to greet me. It amazes me what unconditional love a pet will give and he, for all his odd behaviors is one of my greatest joys. But, the day gets better than just Barney being excited to see me.

At church, we started a Beth Moore study last night on Ester. Its amazing what a little time with God and reading Beth putting it all into perspective will do for your outlook on the day. My day went from horrible to not really so bad in the span of about 45 minutes. One thing this study does is to remind us that God has a miraculous plan for our lives, we just have to let it occur. Today in the study, Beth reminds us of Job and the problems that he faced and that we ALL face problems, and we ALL have issues on a daily basis, but if we let God handle them, there is a great ending waiting for us.

I leave you with this long post a verse from the Ester study.
Even when we're blind to the evidence, God "works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will". - Ephesians 1:11.

God has this in control, we just have to let Him have the controls.