A Hard Lesson

About 3 weeks ago I developed a small cough. I tried treating it with home remedies but nothing worked. I was getting no sleep due to the cough. I have been this way my whole life. If I get little or no sleep I will get sick. I gave the home remedies too long and by the time I called the doctor I was pretty bad off. High fevers a couple of times a day and a cough that was horrible. All the while Tracey is pleading with me to cut back at work but right now there are 100 things to fix and due to lack of experience of my new office teams noone knows what I would do to fix it. And no one wants to make a decision without first running it by me. So therefore I am in meeting after meeting with groups of people. Trying to mentor my AP and my counselor..take care of my new teachers..and experienced teachers and get everything back on track. Meanwhile, I have a group of parents that DEMAND to speak with me on a regular basis it seems because of their concerns. They are mostly from the same grade level and the principal that these parents came from warned me but holy crap. GO TO PRIVATE SCHOOL!!! They want to live in a smaller community with affordable housing but they demand HIGHLAND PARK type education.

Highland Park is where the PARENTS of a school did not think that the teachers salary raises were high enough so they raised over A MILLION DOLLARS and gave it to the district to raise salaries.

My school is a very good school. We have some great things going on and great kids. We are a Title ONE school. What this means is because our free and reduced lunch percentage is over 40% we get extra federal money to do special programs and provide extra materials for our teachers and students to use.

I have a couple of parents that are very concerned because they moved into the area and now their children are having problems that they have never had before and they think it's because of "those Title One Kids".

What a DUMP statement. Because a kid is poor you think he is a bad influence? Have you ever heard of a kid from a wealthy homelife who is just an ASS!! Hell yes they are everywhere.

Money does not make the difference in how a kid behaves. It is how involved the parents or family are in their upbringing .

So I got that going on with all of this nagging cough and fever stuff.

So Tracey and I go to the doctor and I get a chest x-ray. They tell me everything looks good but the radiologist will look at it and they will give me a call when they know something. Well Friday comes and we have Ram for a Night (previous blog) to go to and I feel like royal dog pooh. I have fever...coughing...hacking up crap...it aint pretty folks.

We get a call Friday afternoon from the doctors office that the radiologist sees something in two spots and will get with me the early part of next week )that's this week) to come in and have a CT scan. I call Monday morning and they want me to come in immediately (not a good sign). So I go in have the CT scan and the results are that I have to admitted into the hospital immediately. So by Monday afternoon I am sitting in the hospital room.

More to come.

Jack And Pa

I have stated on more than one occassion that Pa (my dad) is very important to Jack. Jack is named after his Pa and he is proud of that. Each morning Tracey drops the kids off at my parents house and they feed, bathe, dress, and take our kids to school. Well every morning the kids have their house shoes sitting in their breakfast chair. They put their house shoes on and have breakfast. After breakfast they have time to read or watch a little cartoon before they get ready for school. When they get ready the rule is that they return their house shoes to their chair so they will be there the following morning. Well today Jack ran into my parents bathroom to start getting ready and he saw PA brushing his teeth at the sink and he noticed that Pa had slipped off his house shoes just under the sink. So as Jack was getting into the bathtub he shucked off his house shoes. This picture shows you were he decided to put his house shoes. Now how important is Pa to Jack????

Never say..I wouldn't go back

Last Friday Night Jack got to be recognized as "Ram For A Night" for his elementary school. What this is is all of the feeder schools into the high school that Jack will eventually go to get the opportunity at each home game to recognize one student.

This was a special night because as a family we were treated to a pizza dinner by the school and then the students and a parent or teacher got to go on the field and be recognized over the loud speaker. Jack went out on the field with Tracey and I went along on the field and tried to take pictures on the sideline.

What was kind of neat for me was for the first time in eighteen years I got to get back on the field that I and MJP spent many nights on during high school band. Those were some FUN times. I looked around the stadium and I got to see a lot of improvements that were made to the stadium and see that many of my dad's improvements to the stadium 10 years ago looked great. My son has no idea what his Pa did for a living other that principal. But dad's influence in the RISD is much bigger than that. Dad's last position be in central office as director of maintenance had a lot of influence on the improvement of RISD's aging schools and stadiums. Many of the upgrades to the stadium dad implemented. By looking around the stadium you would be shocked to hear that it was 35 years old.

I have said before that I would not want to GO BACK to any part of my life. I enjoyed each stage but I love where I am. My theory was tested last Friday night.

It was nice to get on the field and look up in the stands and see all the people. This night was for Jack and we made sure to take Lot's of pictures. But just for a second it was nice to watch the band kids, the cheerleaders, and the football team and be right there with them and see how much fun each group was having.

As I was walking back off the field I stopped and glanced back for just a moment and looked up in the stands and I thought....I wish I could do this one more time.

Look At The Big Boy Go!!

Throughout Jacks first year of flag football he has played many positions in practice. QB-Center-WR- and Running Back. However, during games Jack has been center or the coach has used Jack as his pass rusher on Defense. Well the other day Jack got to play running back. He took the ball and he started churning his little tree stump legs.

Big Boy actually had some speed. He was not very agile but he did cut back against the grain and ran for a 35 yard gain. Considering the field is only 40 yards long that was quite a run. The parents from both of the teams were cheering for Jack as THE BIG BOY was rumbling down the field. He was so proud of himself!

That led to him getting the ball again this week. While his gain was for only 15 yards he did have a couple of squiggly moves to make the other team miss. He really enjoyed getting to run with the ball. He probably is destined for line play but it is nice to see THE BIG BOY get the ball .

Emotional Roller Coaster

Sometimes my job is emotionally draining. I have made a commitment to get my school on the right track. I have many new people so I have been putting in many long days the past few weeks plus working at least one day on the weekend to take care of everyone. I would say that when it comes to the teachers and my office staff I am starting to see the fruits of my labor.

During this time Tracey has basically been a single mom. I have been leaving before the sun comes up and getting home sometimes after nine o'clock. I went 3 days without seeing my kids awake. I am putting more preasure on myself because last year we were a recognized campus and I don't want to be a one and done. Through all of this Tracey has not said one word about me needing to cut back the hours because she knows how important this is to me. At the same time I know when we talk she is doing everything she can not to say it.

The thing that really hurts is what I had to do Friday. There is a boy that I had to send to an alternative educational setting for 15 days. The thing that really sucks about this is it is a boy who I have been trying to bond with and have made strides in the right direction. Given the propper home environment he could make it. He is smart but I honestly don't think his mom or step dad give a flip about him. I called them about two weeks ago but the only reason I got ahold of them was because the student knew their number. None of the numbers they gave us work. Well when I tried to call them yesterday the number that did work two weeks ago is no longer in service. If something serious happened to this child we would have no way of being able to get ahold of these people. THAT IS NEGLECT!! PLAIN AND SIMPLE. It pisses me off to no end that here is a kid that could make it but probably will not. Due to the nature of what he did I had to do what I did. I did not have a choice. But here is the situation. I am the only male figure in his life that has shown any kind of interest in his well being. I check his homework every morning. I check to make sure he has all of his stuff when he goes home. And now I am the one that has to send him away. After he left my office yesterday I just felt like I had been punched in the gut. I just sat in my chair with my head in my hands. Sometimes my job is hard.

A Coversation that started off innocent and then???

A while back Caroline was having a conversation with my mother but to Caroline she is Grammy.

Caroline: You know grammy I can't wait until I grow up!

Grammy: Well that is exciting Caroline why is that? (Innocent follow up question)

Caroline: Because when I grow up I am going to have BIG BOOBIES like my mommy.

Grammy....Grammy...are you okay? Grammy are you awake now? Grammy

A Shout Out for A NEW BLOG in my links section

I have a friend who is doing her own blog. I will call her Mo. Check her blog out. She is a girl who is not afraid to speak her mind. It is very entertaining reading.

In Their Element!

Caroline LOVES to go shopping with her momma. She loves it even more when they go to CHICO'S

Two Things Caroline Loves

Spending time with Pa and COOKING!!!

When Will His Feet STOP??

Seriously!!! Look at those things! Can we start passing the collection plate now for his shoes when he is 16!?!?

Happy Birthday Pa! I brought you some HOT SAUCE

This is Jack and "His PA!" or my dad. Pa is very important to Jack. Jack knows that he is named after my dad and is proud that he is named after both of his grandfathers.

Today is my dad's birthday. Happy 66 dad! We had a gathering yesterday and adored on him. Well this morning as the kids were leaving for Grammy and Pa's Jack stopped and got really worried. He asked Tracey....What are we going to give PA this morning? Tracey tried to explain to Jack that we gave him his present yesterday. Jack would not hear it. He said....we HAVE TO GIVE HIM SOMETHING>....It's is ACTUAL BIRTHDAY.

Then Jack ran back into the house and pulled out some hotsauce that he and I bought on Saturday. He told Tracey...PA LOVES HOT STUFF...WE CAN GIVE HIM THIS!!!

So happy birthday Pa. I hope you enjoy your newly opened Hotsauce.

Yes She Is LEGAL!!

You can see from this picture the reason why every team we face questions Carolines age. Here is a cute picture of her team. You can see the size of the other kids.

I

It is all in the motivation. It was a little warm Saturday and the kids interest in playing soccer began to drop off drastically. At half the coach had a VERY INSPIRING pep talk that inspired this picture.

LET ME SEE BY SHOW OF HANDS WHO WANTS A SNACK AND SOME JUICE AT THE END OF THE GAME???? THEN LETS PLAY SOCCER

Go Lightning

Soccer is in full swing. Caroline is really enjoying it. The kids seem to be working well together. Here she is "IN ACTION"

A Step of Freedom

Well yesterday was a special day in Carolines world. She wants to ride a horse. We have a stable close to our house. Every day Caroline sees the horses. To ride a horse she was told by the manager of the stable that she has to be able to ride her bike without training wheels. So what did she do? She went and found some of daddy's tools and took one of the training wheels off of all by herself before mommy saw what she was doing and helped her get the other wheel off. From there she was riding her bike without training wheels in about five minutes. That is motivation at its best.

Did I Miss The Memo?

Here is a fashion trend that I noticed at the Cowboy game on Sunday. The Hoochy Mama look of A mini skirt that that stops right under the girls butt and then wear you choice of Cowboy Boots! This is usually topped off with your choice of TIGHT shirt with BREAST sticking out all over the place.

These girls spend most of the game going up and down the stares. One girl literally had to hold her skirt down because if she didn't each time she stepped up on the stairs you got a FREE view of.....you guessed it.

And this fashion trend was RAMPANT at the stadium.

The shame of it to me was there were some very beautiful woman who were just tramped up. That is a turn OFF for me.

Guys if this is your idea of Showing Off your lady then you are cheapening your girlfriend.

Another note there were several woman I noticed needed to get the memo that once you hit a certain age....let it go! The surgeon can do NO MORE!!!

That's Right Sweatheart...Soak It ALL In.

This is Mr. Groov E. Shooz. That's right ladies soak him in. Enjoy him....Fear him

Father Son Bonding

Thank you to MJP for providing me an opportunity to create a memory that Jack and I will have forever.

Observation 2 How to eat up a day...GO TO A COWBOY GAME

As I mentioned earlier I had the opportunity to go to the Cowboy game with Jack.

12:30 Met up at MJP's house6.

1:45- Arrived in the parking lot.

2:00- Find seats and feed Jack a pizza- small individual pizza.

2:00-6:00 Pregame Festivities and the Game

7:30 arrive back at MJP's house.

8:30- Arrive home with dinner for Jack and myself.

There went that day

The Greatness of the Coke Float

I took the kids out for a quick bite tonight. We ended up going to Wendy's. I went on the lighter side (or so I thought) with the taco salad. Definately not light. I ate half of it and stopped. The kids ate the kids meal of chicken and fries. The chicken actually looked pretty good.

I degress- for dessert we were planning on going and getting slurpee's but I saw with this big display that Wendy's does COKE FLOATS. Now I love coke floats. I don't get them very often. As a matter of fact the only time I get them is at home. This looked just way too yummy. So I asked the kids if they wanted one of those instead. I first had to explain what a CF was. After I explained it they agreed it sounded pretty darn good.

I must say as coke floats go that thing was GREAT! You get to choose what type of drink they put in it and the rest is soft serve.

So if you happen to go by a Wendy's....try their coke float. It is YUMMY

Will My 3% Raise Cover This?

Well yesterday I went to probably my last Cowboy game for a while. With the new stadium opening I am not sure my raise will cover it. I don't know what MJP's company pays for their tickets but they are on the 40 yard line 14 rows up. Here is what Mr. Jones want's for those same seats next year.

$35,000 license for each seat. X 4 = 150,000
$350 per seat X 4 = 1500
8 home games X 10= 15000 Don't forget Preseason
Parking 1000

Total= About $176,000 Maybe playoffs- Grand total about $225,000 to $250,000

Anyone want to go HALVSIES for next year?

Go Cowboys!

Jack and I went to the Cowboy game this past Sunday thanks to the company tickets provided by MJP. We piled into the car and off we went. We had a very nice time. I have several observations from this trip that I will be sharing throughout the week. Check back often...some of this stuff is interesting

Go Get'em Girl

Today was Caroline's first soccer game. The team is made up of girls and boys ages 4 to 5. Caroline turned five right at a month ago. We really did not know what to expect because last year she tried soccer and it did not go well. Rarely did she finish any of the games.

Well this year she is on a different team. She is the only girl on the team but she has done very well in practice. She has a real good understanding of what she is supposed to be doing.

I must say that for the first time I noticed that her playing with her brother, who out wieghs her by 40lbs really paid off. The boys from the other team would bump into her trying to get the ball. ALL LEGAL stuff and none of it fazed her. She got her elbows out there and really did well. She scored 3 or 4 goals and acording to her had a lot of fun.

Maybe Soccer will stick longer than we thought.

Right nowin order of importance we have

Dance/Ballet
Karate
Soccer

We shall see where this goes.

Hey...You Forgot SOMETHING!!

The other day I dropped into McDonalds for a quick bite on my way to work. I like to get the Egg McMuffin because it is about the healthiest thing on there. Anyway, I make my order and while I am waiting this older gentleman catches my attention because he is making his coffee. Nothing out of the ordinary I guess. He sets his large coffee on the counter. He opens up 4 creamers and pours them into his coffee. After he opens the containers he places the containers down on the counter. Then he opens up 3 packets of sugar and puts them in his coffee. Again he puts the empty sugar packets on the counter. He then grabs a stir stick and goes to town for about 3 seconds. He then starts to leave and as he does we make eye contact. He grins and says "Mornin'" as he starts to leave.

He left his entire MESS on the counter for someone else to come clean up. Is it just me or is that sorry?

It's All In the Wrist!

Well tonight I had to do one of MY "OFFICIAL" DUTIES as Dad. Pull a tooth. It really is not hard to do. I don't attempt to do it until the tooth is really ready. I follow the rules that my dad did when pulling mine and my sisters tooth when we were kids.

Get a paper cloth.
Grab tooth at base of gum.
Squeeze- I don't squeeze nearly as hard as my dad did but I do pinch a little.
Pull on tooth in small jerking motion.

My dad used to squeeze so darn hard you did not care about anything than just get him to let go of your gum. It was so uncomfortable that you did not notice he pulled your tooth.

When T-Lady was growing up she got scared by her dad watching him try to pull a tooth of her older sister KC. Basically he grabbed the tooth and then before he tried to pull the tooth as "legend" goes he hit her in the stomach thinking that would get her mind off of the tooth.

The result? KC is laying in the floor gasping for air AND still has a loose tooth.

I thought there was some exaggerated going on until her dad fessed up to the technique.

Some ways are better than others.

How did your parents pull teeth?

What Is THAT Look For?

So what do you think? Do you think he liked the answer to his question?

Genius...Pure Genius

The high school band in my district is selling pink flamingo's as a fund raiser. That is right....the pink flamingo's that go in your front yard. A few weeks ago a few of the campus administrator's bought 10 of the flamingo's and put them in the superentendant's yard. The town I am in is smaller...I think 8 campuses all together. Anyway, we have a great group of administrators so everyone had a good laugh. As this has gone on you see pink flamingo's in many yards.

One of the band directors came up with a way to make extra money-

Whistle Blower Fund- If you agree to pay this fee you can call up the band department
and find out who "flocked" you.

Shush Fund- If you agree to pay this fund then you will remain anonymous and noone can find out that you flocked them.

Today the band director was on my campus and he said....have you paid for your monthly protection Mr. Jdhteach? My response was...you don't know where I live. His response...your school could be flocked. My response...go ahead...I need some yard beautification art. His response....(dejected) I am getting the flock out of here.

HA!!

I am a lucky dude

I have been married to T-Lady for 11 going on 12 years now. In that time period we have had arguments sure. If anyone tells you they are married to someone and they never argue is lying! Besides...I am not easy to live with I know.

In my line of work I am around many woman. Many of these women are very beautiful woman.

The thing about T-Lady is I think she is the sexiest thing ever created by God! I don't know where I rate on the good looks scale but to me T-Lady is the cutest thing ever.

I know that if the good Lord lets me reach old age I am going to be chasing her with my walker and using a cane to catch her.

Well What Else Can I Do For YYYYOOOOOUUUU

Anyone who works with me knows that I will do whatever it takes to do what is best for kids. But there comes a time where I think parents need to be willing to work with the school just a bit. Let me explain.

I have a student who qualifies for a pull out program. This program is a PULL OUT program. It is a pull out program in ANY PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM IN THE US! Here is the list of "demands" by the parent.

Demand Number ONE- My child be served by program X because they qualify-

My answer- Of course. We want what is best for the child and we want them to be successful.

Demand Number TWO- My child will NOT be PULLED from any classes to receive said services.

AND- The child cannot come before school or stay after school because they ride the bus.....

Anybody see a problem with this??? Am I the only one?