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.