Photoshop Class

As a teacher, I need 6 credits every 5 years in order to renew my teaching certificate. Well, I figured I'd better finish now otherwise I'd put it off and forget about it. The art teacher at DRHS offered a Photoshop class. I LOVE taking pictures so why not be able to work with them and make them neat? Well.... this is what I did...

We did other things like make a cover for a CD case, animation, and posters. I had a lot of fun and learned how to make photos fun!

It's Been Too Long!

I know... It's been a LONG time since I've been on here. Honestly, I really haven't been up to much. But here's what has happened in my life....

At the end of May, we took our first family vacation. We went to the Black Hills and made some wonderful family memories. I think it's absoutely beautiful there and would love to live there only... I'd only come to the east side of the river once a year. I do NOT enjoy that ride. I find it rather boring to say the least. Bear Country was by far my most favorite part of the trip.

My cousin got married the first weekend of June. The wedding was simple, but nice. Braelyn thought she was cool stuff and tried to do the chicken dance. That was quite hilarious and someday, when time allows, Tracy is going to show me how to upload a video.

I've been busy working these past two weeks. I FINALLY received some technology in my classroom and I'm beyond excited to start the school year so I can use it! My teammates and I are busy getting lessons loaded and making them exciting for the students. Who are we kidding? I think we're going to be more excited than the kids!

This week I'm taking a course on photoshop. It's so much fun to play with the pictures. This is going to be Heath's Father's Day gift (part of it... he already purchased a navigation device for himself). I think it turned out rather neat if I must say so.

Well, that's all I have for now.

50 days left...

50 days of school left... Or something like that. The kids are in a whole different world and they're driving me bonkers! It's like every rule that we've made has disappeared. I, the teacher, am not important. I have had to put my mean face on more than I would like to. My mean, grouchy teacher voice comes out on a regular basis! Spring is going to be here soon... I just know it!
Tomorrow is my little brother's last basketball game of his career. It's hard for me to believe, but after 12 years of watching him play, it's coming to an end. There was a nice article in the Argus Leader about Rane.

Update!

Okay... so I've been busy and that's why I haven't updated in the longest time! Please forgive me!!
So, I would like to share with you the scariest time of my life...
Saturday evening my little brother had a home game in Vermillion that we were going to attend and being the money saving person that I am, knew that we could hold off to buy diapers in SF that day. Heath, Braelyn, and I were sitting in the left hand lane at a red light on the 26th Street off ramp. All of a sudden I heard a very loud truck getting closer and when I looked out at my mirror I noticed this white, Ford F-250 was taking the off ramp at a VERY HIGH speed in the right hand lane. Right before the intersection the truck went into the ditch, up over the ditch, air born over the westbound lane into the median, bounced back up, over the eastbound lane, and rolled into the ditch between the interstate and Lowes. Um... Yea! I think I wet my pants. My first thought was that this vehicle was out of control and this person needed help. As I frantically tried to call 911, I heard sirens getting closer. Three squad cars were following this truck. Heath asked if I thought he should go see if he could help and I instantly agreed. He quickly got in the right hand lane and headed for the Lowes parking lot. We got to the intersection of Lowes and 26th Street and noticed the cops were on the north side of the road, in a bank parking lot. I stuck my head out of the window and started yelling at them to go into Lowes parking lot. Well, they headed towards us, stopped in the intersection, asked me again what I said, and headed towards Lowes. We got into the parking lot and Heath went to the scene to see if he could help in any way. He returned to the car 10-15 minutes later and let me know that he told the officers he was an off duty officer from Madison and he helped get people away from the scene. But, before he got back to the truck, he noticed an officer running up to his car carrying two gallon freezer bags full of something. Then another officer asked Heath to help him start picking up weed that was scattered on the ground. (hmm... I'm going to assume those bags were filled with weed!)As they were picking it up, they noticed an air compressor filled with bags of weed! Read this link to find out more: http://www.keloland.com/NewsDetail6162.cfm?ID=0,81019
We believe the driver of the vehicle is the tall guy in the front with wounds on his forehead. He ran from the scene and was found in the lawn and garden section of Lowes with head wounds.
http://www.keloland.com/videoarchive/index.cfm?VideoFile=022309nb
If I could, I would like to go flick this guy in the forehead and ask why he had to be so stupid! I mean come on... it's 3:00 on a Saturday afternoon. 26th Street is going to be busy!!!! And it definitely was! We were so lucky that God was watching that street because no one else got hurt.

Great News!

Thanks for all of the prayers. The Caringbridge site for Ava was updated this afternoon. Her parents received some relieving news that her cancer isn't growing rapidly. Amen! They haven't received word on the bone test so please keep praying.

I have one other prayer request... please pray for children whose parents don't listen to teachers and stay in denial about their child. It only hurts the child in the long run... I hate parent/teacher conferences. It is the absolute worst part about my job. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy talking with parents and letting them know how well their child is doing and what I need them to do at home in order for their child to be successful. Because let's face it, 7 1/2 hrs a day isn't enough time to teach phonics, reading, math, science, social studies, and life skills (I wish religion was in my curriculum... perhaps some day) in the depth that it should be taught. Teachers teach the skills... parents practice with the child. But, I have a difficult time documenting every little thing about a child, spending WAY more time on this one child than the rest of the class, doing every little thing that I possibly can in order to make he/she feel successful, and have the parents say there is nothing wrong and we aren't going to do anything about it. Of course they don't see anything wrong when they LIE! Ugh. Enough. I could go on and on and on and on. It's making me absolutely sick.

How about some pictures? Here are some pictures from my brother's basketball game vs. UND.

Eric and Braelyn

Myself and Braelyn
Below: Rane and Braelyn

My little family.

Prayers Are Needed

In First Grade, in a small Catholic school, I had 17 classmates. Through the years we gained some classmates and lost some due to moving or homeschooling. I ended up graduating with 12 wonderful people. Our morning roll call became: 4 Katies, 5 boys, 4 others. We were a small, but close group. We shared many laughs and tears over the years.
I got an email from one of my classmates last week (I happen to teach her son now) saying that one of our classmate's 11 month old daughter has cancer. I knew we, as a class, had to do something for him and his family.
I got on facebook (because that is the easiest way to get ahold of 10 people at one time) and informed the rest of our class of the situation and asked what we should do. We came to the conclusion that we should send a gift card. Everyone was going to send me their donation and I am to go get a gift card. Wow. Okay. I can do that. That's when the checks started rolling it. It's just amazing how close I still feel to all of them. It's a comforting feeling to know that we all still care about one another. I don't think there are many people out there that can say all of their classmates care about them 8 years after graduation.
Please pray for Ava and her mommy and daddy. Please pray that God gives them strength to overcome this.