Summer...

Summer is in full swing. We are back home and trying to decide what needs to get done around the house.

The pool isn't done yet. Still needs cleaned. The yard needs mowed and there are a few small jobs around the house that really need to be done. For me the idea is to get the kids involved in getting some of these things done. I am not sure they like that idea.

I have to begin planning for the school year as well. I am honestly a bit lazy about doing that because I do not want to begin planning for something that I may not teach. That would be a complete waste of time for me. Why prepare for something I will not be teaching?

L is now on her own for prepping for the Corps of Cadets. After mush discussion we have decided that she needs to prepare for this on her own. She wants to fight us all the way. She doesn't know if she likes the help or hates the help. So we aren't going to help her at all with it. If she wants this she is going to have to work for it. It is something she needs to be fighting for herself. We won't be there in the fall.

K and I are really looking at the Houston area for a move. Right now I think we are just looking for a move to an area we don't feel so claustrophobic. We want to be able to be out more. I am nervous that moving isn't gong to solve as many problems as we hope it will. Maybe I am woorried about nothing, but the concerns are there. there is a concern that stay here is just as bad.

June 2009

This has been a very interesting week on many levels.

On a personal level I spent more days away from the family than I am use to. I spent five days in Houston for training and the family came up on Wednesday. K took the kids to the children's museum up there. I spent time in the classrooms of Rice University and visited Hindi and Muslim houses of worship. The hope is that having visited these places will allow us to be able to teach with some personal touches.

The kids were also able to use the hotel pool. They seemes to enjoy the couple days they had up there.

K and I are looking at the real possibility of making a move up there since it seems so hard to get into the Austin area. I have a couple of friends in different districts in the Houston region. One district in particular has an opening at one of the high schools and a friend has passed on my information to people she knows and the hope is that I get a call for an interview.

K has been looking into the region a little more and has noticed there are a lot more activities for children in the area. She is researching to see where the better areas are to live.

On a different note it has been a week of losses in the world of celebrities. Ed MacMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, and Billy Mays. Wow! All four in less than a week's time. Rest in Peace all.

Houston

I am currently in Houston for a conference. I have been here since Monday and will be here for a few more days. I am tired. Have been waking up every morning before 7 and have not been able to get to sleep before 12 or 1am.

I am not sure if I am learning anything just yet. I will have to get back to you on that. I think I am getting information that I can use to find things to use.

The drive up here wasn't bad. On Monday I drove L over to TAMU. She had her audition for the TAMU band on Tues and we now have a member of the TAMU Corps Band in our family.

Yesteday K and our youngest three drove in to spend the last few days with me and we all drove over to pick up L. It is really nice to have everyone up here. Last night I was able to get a really good night of sleep with K in bed with me. I didn't fall asleep any earlier, but I slept deeper I think.

Today the conference I am in is in the computer lab for a bit before we head out to the Islamic Education Center. We are going to be learning more about the religions we teach about.

K is talking about taking the kids to the Children's Museum today. I wish I was going, but I am still glad that when I get back to the hotel room they will be around.

Houston....

Today I head to Houston for five days. Doesn't sound like a long time, but right now it feels like it.



L has her freshmen orientation days this week, so she is coming up with me and then I will drive her over tomorrow night. On Wednesday I will dive back over there to pick her up. Sound fun?



For the next five days I will be going to Rice University to learn all about AP Human Geeography. I am hoping to come away from it with more ideas, great ideas, and textbooks. Yes. textbooks. My district does not buy new textbooks until 2012 and the textbooks I have are already outdated. Money is not spent on my course even though my course is the first AP course students take in high school.

I know five days isn't much, but I hate being away. I have an actual vacation this summer. No working, something very unusal for me. Nice though. So being away for five days is odd.

Need to finish packing.

Another computer bites the dust

I have a new laptop. I can't believe it. I paid - get this - $0.00. I didn't pay a dime for it. The laptop I had up until yesteday decided to do a header into a abyss of a blackhole of a tantrum. I am not quite sure how else to explain its sudden refusal to boot up. I didn't do anything but try to take care of it. I updated it like a loving, caring owner, and it rejected the upgrade like a two year old throwing the mother of all tantrums. (That was just the beginning of this.)



I do the right thing; I chatted up HP. You've all heard of them I am sure. They happen to be the ones that created this now tantrum seized computer. I was able to get onto on of the other laptops we have to begin a chat session with their tech support. I assumed it would be easier to understand them through chat then on the phone. (Have you had to speak with tech support recently? Can you speak Hindu? If you can - GO YOU! Otherwise be prepared for a very frustrating conversation with someone who has a VERY thick accent.)



Things went well in the chat. Diagnosis: laptop BIOS is screwed we are sending you a box to ship the computer to us to fix. Awesome, cool. I will be without it for several days, but it'll get fixed. I give them my contact info, they give me my work order numbers, and my wait for the box begins. Wait for box begins.



I do a search for the delivery on Tuesday and it is out for delivery. Cool. K and I head to lunch and spend some time shopping. We get home about 4 hours later and no box. What the heck? So I get online and find my box has been delivered. Ummm no, it hasn't. so I call FedEx. Where's me box? Delivered. Nope. Not here. Its been delivered to.... Not my address!! WTF! It has miraculously ended up at an address we have had it the past - like 5 years ago. Before our house was built. How the hell?



So I call HP. Not chat. I get the man with the accent. I very nicely, at first, deal with him. I then after I had had more than enough of the circles we were going in I very firmly berated him and said told him to transfer me to his supervisor because he was only going to continue to upset me and I was only going to tell him to transfer me. The possibility of a productive conversation had obviously ended and he needed to transfer me. He continued... I said transfer me to your supervisor, thank you. He said something else.... tansfer me to your supervisor, thank you. I must have said it 5 times. K is in the background laughing.



Supervisor comes on. Tries to go through the questioning. I say.. Look, you know who I am and what the problem is. Your associate filled you in. I do not trust that your company will not lose my laptop. If my laptop had been in that box. Ma'm they would have had to sign for it. They would have signed for it and I wouldn't have my laptop. I gave your company the correct contact information, I have proof that I did because I have a copy of the chat session with the HP tech.

Again, I do not have trust in your company's ability to accurately deliver my laptop to me. You tell me how you are going to fix this problem.



He, of course, could not. The conversation ended with him promising to send me a new box and to expedite the repairs of the computer. This was Tuesday, it is now Friday. still no box.



Yesterday, I took my laptop, my chat session, and my frustrations with HP to Best Buy (where I purchased it) and asked for help. I am fortunate that I have an ex-student who works there and mentioned his name. He haas heard of my problems they day before and said just bring it in. If they lose it i get a new one. So I show them the chatm show them the laptop, mention G's name, and wait. Five minutes after looking at the chat and trying to get the computer to boot up, they say we'll just exchange it for a new computer. What? Huh? So cool! Score!



I now have a 17" screen HP ( I know, but I have the protection plan, so I insurance so to speak.) The new laptop has a number pad. It is larger than any other laptop I have had. It is going to take some time to get use to, but so far I like it.



Many other things have happend since the last time I wrote, but I will save that for later.

And summer continues...

Its summer. I feel a little lost, not having something structured to be doing. I have been working on some cross stitching and trying to clean out the pool.

Graduation Day

Our eldest daughter graduates today. The ceremony starts in an hour and a half. She is finishing up one part of her life and starting a whole new chapter. She isn't quite 18 yet, so she technically isn't an adult, but she is one step closer tonight.

It is funny and hard to deal with the evolving teen. We have one that has been in college a year now and is independent in all ways except monetary. Something he seems to feel is ok and yet it isn't. He feels as if he can come and go as he please, eat, live, and use the laundry facilities without chipping in. He doesn't mow the lawn when he is home, doesn't really do anything. I refuse to allow this to happen with the second one.

The oldest one, I wasn't around for the foundation years. Well, his foundation was set before K and I moved in together. With K's younger 2, its a different story. I am much more involved with them than I am with R. I look back and wonder if I could have done it differently, but i realize that is is pointless to look back for to long because the only thing that I will accomplish is giving myself a cramp in the neck muscles.

L has some growing up to do still - most of that will happen in the college years. I am looking forward to seeing her mature, but will miss her too.

The school year is, now what.

The school year is basically over. All that is left is for me to go back on Monday, pack up and lock up some loose things. I am waiting until Monday because tomorrow our eldest daughter graduates from high school and I want to focus on the family.

This year I learned a little on the admin side. Yes, I mean a little. I felt like a babysitter most of the time. I resigned my administrative duties in order to go back to being able to focus on my teaching. That is what I am really there for.

There is a lot of change on the horizon. A very good friend of ours is retiring and moving out of state. She has found love on the internet and is retiring from her teaching position in order to mover a very small town to be with him.
Our eldest daughter is graduating and will be heading off to college in August. She has chosen to join the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets in order to play in the band there. This is a very big step and will require discipline from her that she cannot even imagine at this point.
Our youngest daughter is going to be going to junior high in the fall. She is growing so fast. I have noticed a definite maturity emerging from her this past few months.

On a sad note our hair dresser, of 8 years, has suddenly passed. Lynne knew about our family and NEVER had a problem with it. She was more than a hair dresser, she was extended family. It was a blow to learn she passed and we missed the funeral. She was the only one to cut our families' hair during the past 8 years. We will miss you Lynne.

My mother-in-law is landing at the airport as I type this. K, L, and N are picking her up. I don't mind her visits, but its always difficult to watch K have to deal with her mom.

No more student's dirty looks....

It is official - the 2008 - 2009 school year is in the books. It is history. As of today the classes of 2008 - 2009 are finished. The only things left to do before fully closing out the books is to tally all the grades, turn in my gradebook, clean up my room, and leave the keys with the front office.

I am trying not to take home anymore than I have to. This means only taking home things that I need to prep for next school year. I know - I sound nuts. This school year isn't even fully finished yet and I am thinking about the fall. Its part of the business of wanting to be a good teacher. I want to look back at what this year was like, evaluate it, learn from it, and change what I can to make the class better for me and for the students.

The summer will start off with our eldest daughter's high school graduation. My mother-in-law is flying in, should be a real treat. (if we only had some strong narcotics to give her) L will be heading off to college in the fall. The summer will be filled with.... well I am not quite sure yet.

National Lesbian Bog day

I may have the title wrong, but the reality of it is that there are more of us out here than the moronic ultra conservatives want to admit. we are every where. We are exemplary teachers in high school, middle schools, elementarys, pre school, public, and private. We are the parents dropping our precious children off for the first and the last day of school. We are room moms and PTA/PTo volunteers. We are in every financial level of society, in every state, in every city. (Yes, small towns too.)

For the most part you can't tell who we are unless you ask. When you ask we honestly do think you are stupid when you say "You don't look like it." We honestly would like to know what does "it" look like?

My children face the same challenges as yours. They want to make friends, excel in school and extra curricular activites. The want their parents to be involved in school activities without being pointed at. My children are possibly better off than yours in the fact that my children will accept diversity in stride and they value that everyone is unique and that everyone loves.

Treat us and you would want to be treated. Treat my children as you demand your children be treated. Children are the future of our country - regardless of who their parents are.