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.

Tomorrow is the big day!

~*~Great News~*~

~*~Heath is coming home tomorrow~*~

~*~I'm so thrilled~*~

~*~Please pray for his safe travel~*~

Single Parenting Class

Well, I'm about finished with my single parenting class! I won't lie, it wasn't easy, but I think I did fairly well. There were only a few times I lost my mind, but everything turned out okay. Shall we run through everything that shouldn't have happened, but did... okay...
-Braelyn became sick (throwing up and the squirts... the squirts lasted for a WEEK!)

-Expedition started to shake on the interstate on my way home from school & when I got home the check engine light came on (My Guardian Angel was with me that day)

-Blade on the 4 wheeler fell off in the middle of the road
-4 wheeler wouldn't start
- -30 degrees outside therefore Dex (smelly, outside dog) needed to come in
-back door wouldn't shut
-I became ill
-received a nice little "If you don't scoop, you won't get your mail" letter from the postman (By the way, it was 2 inches... nothing compared to the 2 ft he walks through to get to my sidewalk)

Thanks to Brandon, Nick, and Larry for helping me out with some of my troubles! It meant a lot for you guys to come help! I guess I can thank my dad for wanting to drive 35 miles to make sure we got scooped out and that the 4 wheeler was ready for another snow!

Braelyn and I kept busy with report cards (that was more me than Braelyn I guess), going to Colby's bball game, jewelry party, Susanna's birthday party, shopping, and baking! I enjoyed every minute of mommy/Braelyn time, but it's time for daddy to come home and take his turn. Friday can't come soon enough!

Hi! Ho! Hi! Ho! It's back to work I go!

Well, I was officially off my break yesterday. 6:15am came way too soon! It was one of the hardest days to go back since I had so much fun at home for a week and a half. On the bright side, I'm half way done!

Yesterday, Heath left for SF for some training and will return home late Wednesday night. Early Thursday morning he will pack his bags once again and hit the road to Missouri for some Guard School. He will return to Braelyn and I on the 23rd of January. I'm trying to picture this as my "Single Parenthood Class" as I prepare for the upcoming year and I've got to say, so far, so good! I know it's only been two days, but for anyone that knows me, I don't do well when Heath is gone. I've got a couple of outings planned for Braelyn and I and I think I may take a shopping trip in there somewhere to keep my mind off of him being gone. Also, I have to have a routine otherwise I may loose my mind! I've got my routine down and it's working quite well! Whew!

Well, I have some grades to post so I'd better stop procrastinating!