Our Thanks.....

I know, I know....I keep doing it! I'm a slacker.

Recently my mom sent my kiddos some amazing chex-mix and some presents (cool pencils and Halloween rings!). The kids were very excited and sent this message:

My First Attempt.....

Alright folks, trying something new here.....I am using my iPod touch to write a quick entry to see if it will post to my blog. My fingers are crossed......

Isn't technology amazing?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

My Favorite Night of the Week.....

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to my favorite night of the week: Monday.

I know, some of you are reading this and wondering...."Monday? Why on Earth would anyone like Monday?"

If you're asking that simple question, then let me introduce you to the best shows on television that you're not watching: How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory. These two shows have brightened my Mondays for the the past two years and I just realized a few weeks ago, that these shows have made Monday, the only night of TV that I won't miss.

How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM) is a comedy on CBS at 8 pm EST on Mondays. The premise behind the show is that a father (Ted) is telling his children the story of how he met their mother (thus the title). So far, the story is on it's fifth year and occasionally the kids joke about how long of a story it is, but the show is hilarious. It's added a ton of new phrases to the American language, including The Crazy-Hot Scale, "crazy eyes", and my personal favorite, The Platinum Rule.

The show costars Neil Patrick Harris, yes--Doogie Howser, and his character is fantastic. For those of you that don't know who he is, he also hosted the Emmys last month, which received rave reviews.

Some of calling the show the Friends of this decade. A show about a group of friends, living in New York City and watching their lives unfold. Don't believe me? Check out this article:

http://www.tv.com/story/18467.html

The other addition to my Monday line-up is The Big Bang Theory, a show about two scientists and their adventures in the real-world. The show is intellectual funny, although more so making fun of the intellectuals than anything else. The show is on at 9:30 pm EST on CBS. For some reason, I feel old because I'm watching CBS, but I'll go with it. For a bit more info on the show, check out this link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/arts/television/05bang.html

Trust me....give them a chance and you'll love Mondays as well!

My Favorite Message.....

I normally don't do this, but as a teacher, I thought this was hilarious. Luckily most of the parents I've had are fantastic, but this was too good not to pass on to you. Enjoy!

Just click this link and you'll love it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwghabw4N80

God bless

My Foam Finger.....

I have to be honest, I love a good pep rally, especially at a small school where everyone is involved. My school down here has roughly 650 students from JK-12th grade, of which 212 are in the Upper School (high school). Homecoming is this week and since we don't have a football program, soccer and field hockey games serve for our HC celebration.

It is our tradition to have the entire school meet in our big gym for a pep rally the day of/before our HC games (which this year will be on Saturday, sometimes they're on Friday). The little kids get so excited for this day because they get to be out of uniform and this year they were allowed to wear blue wigs to the rally. One of my boys even came to school with a foam finger that said "LCS #1! It was fantastic.

So as we're heading over to the gym, the kids are getting so excited.....they're starting to talk, they're getting a little nervous (because we've been talking about being loud and supporting the team) and we get caught in a line outside the gym....which adds to the building of excitement.....we finally file in and the music is loud, the pep club was going nuts....cheering, waving their flags/signs......two students are dressed up as a titan and an amazon (our mascots). It was glorious.

And my kids had huge smiles on their faces. They loved it! They cheered as loud as they could, they yelled, clapped and made their teacher proud. Even when they asked grade by grade who could cheer the loudest, the 4th grade were the winners!!!!

A glorious afternoon it was and my favorite part was my one student, with his retro Collegiate t-shirt and his little foam finger.

God bless.

My Newly Earned Street Cred.....

Greetings to my two faithful readers that still follow this thing....even after months and months of inactivity!

I played a game of pick-up footy for the first time in years yesterday and had a blast. I met my buddy Clint at Seneca park to kick a soccer ball a bit and we ended up playing a pick-up game with some guys that just graduated from high school. Too be honest, I was quite nervous about the 7 v 7 game, mostly because it had been a while since I played.

Luckily, I held my own for a while.....(although they made us be skins....so it was there fault that a hairy 28 year old was running around the pitch)....until 30 minutes into the game when I was exhausted. Obviously, my fitness isn't what it used to be.

After missing a terrible shot....I got a cross on the ground.....as it came to me, I used my left foot to pop the ball in air and then hit it with my right towards the goal. I hit the ball better than I thought and it blasted off the keeper and into the goal. Needless to say, I was pretty excited. All of a sudden, the young guys were yelling about how "dirty" that goal was (which, apparently, means it was a pretty good strike). After receiving a round of hi-fives....I started to get the ball a bit more.

Sadly, it was the only goal I scored, but I enjoyed my Saturday afternoon. Hopefully, more to come later.

God bless

For A Devoted Reader......

To be honest, I realize the delay in my posts.....and again, to be honest, there has been one post which I have been neglecting to write. It's not that I didn't think the subject was worthy, because she is more than worthy of her own post....I suppose it's just that I haven't wanted to confront the subject (and that's being truthful).

This Winter we lost a grandmother, mother, wife, sister, aunt, reader (occasional poster) and friend. My aunt Lola Clatt passed away after a long battle with cancer, which had it's ups and downs. Sadly she had been struggling for the past few months and ultimately cancer claimed her life.

To put it simply: Lola was an amazing woman. She was caring, honest and always willing to lend a hand when needed. I'll always remember one of the first times I walked into the office she worked at in Indianola and she asked me if I'd seen her "brown ass" yet. I was a bit taken aback and surprised and then of course she showed me the picture of her new donkey (she had it framed on her desk).....this is one of my favorite memories.

I will also always remember her for her kindness. For two years she would pick me up after high school soccer practice in Indianola and then drive me the 20 minutes home to Lacona (passing her own house 10 minutes into the drive). She did this every Monday-Thursday for two years. Her only request was that I would come and mow her lawn....just once.

Now those of you that know me, know that I tend to procrastinate. I always said, "Sure, yeah, no problem. I'll be there!" And I wasn't. : ) I even tried to get my father to pay my debt for me, but he was paying off his own debt (she let him stay in the guest room when he would come visit and in exchange he would mow and help around the house).

Finally, about two years ago, I made good on my debt. I helped her and Butch bale hay one afternoon. To be honest, it was one of the hardest things I'd ever done. My arms felt like jello and I didn't think I'd be able to lift anything for a week.

I came back for the funeral during the winter and I'll be honest....it was cold (way too cold for me). However, it's not the cold that stood out to me, but instead, my uncle Butch (Lola's husband). Butch was the epitome of strength during that trip. Without a doubt, he had just lost one of the most precious people in his life and he was nothing but humble, gracious and accommodating. He welcomed folks into his home, shared stories, recounted Lola's last moments, all when it could have been much easier to just hole-oneself up and want to be alone. I couldn't believe the strength I saw in him during those days and it will be one of the memories that sticks with me through the years.

I'll be honest, I miss Lola already. Sure, we didn't talk daily, weekly, or even monthly, but I miss her comments on here (telling me to hurry up and post something or sharing her thoughts). I'll miss chatting with her at the family reunions (I actually got the call for my job here in Kentucky at her house on the 5th of July last year). She was always supportive. I hope that the next time I head back to Iowa, Butch won't mind if I stop by and chat for a bit. I also hope he'll let me help with the hay.

God Bless

My Week at the Zoo.....

Sadly, it's been almost three weeks since my last post.

I'm getting terrible with this!!!

(be excited though, at least it's not four months!)

Anywho, last week my students and I went to the Louisville Zoo, which......was.....AWESOME!!!!

We had such a good time, studying different ecosystems and how animals and plants adapt to those environments. It was a solid week of science that allowed the students to really focus and learn about the world around them. We got to take some behind-the-scenes tours of the zoo and (even more exciting) the students got to pet a ton of animals! They were excited to see a shingle-back lizard, an armadillo, a hedgehog (my favorite!!), a tarantula, a salamander, a sand boa, a HUGE python (probably 16 ft long) and the ever popular box turtle and rabbit.

It was hilarious walking around the zoo with them because all they wanted to do was take pictures with their cameras, while the docents wanted us to keep up with them so they could continue their tour (a bit of a battle of wills really).

The best part: as a teacher, we had planned everything ahead of time, so all I had to do was wrangle students and check any behavior problems (which, sadly, I'm pretty good at).

The worst part: since we were there all day, the kitchen staff made sack lunches for us. I ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches all week. I had never been tired of PB & J, but that finally happened. Luckily Chelle snuck out on Friday and grabbed me some Wendys!! : )

Well, I'll see if I can find some photos to post this weekend.

I hope things are going well, wherever you are.

Dios te bendiga

My Bench.....

So, the week of Collecting is upon us! Wait.....you don't know what Collecting is, do you? Okay, quick recap:

Collecting is an annual event on the Collegiate schedule. It usually held on a Saturday night and a silent auction is held to raise money for the school. Anything from jewelry, trips and artwork (created by all the classes) is auctioned off. There is a nice dinner, alcohol and all this, for only $150 a ticket. (It's a very formal event)

Now before I go too far, I love Collecting. I think it's a good idea, the silent auction is a nice touch and you get the opportunity to bid for some amazing artwork by the kids. This story isn't so much about Collecting, but more so a story about our piece of artwork for Collecting: The Bench.

The Fourth Grade decided that each class would decorate a bench for Collecting this year, with each bench having a different ecosystem as its theme (in celebration of our Zoo Week, which is the last week in February). The other two classes took the Grasslands of Africa and the rainforests of South America and you know me: I like to be different and difficult. So I decided that my class would decorate our bench with the animals of the Arctic and Antarctica.

I know what you're thinking: 16 animals, no problem! However, I had to distribute the animals, and then have the kids paint their animal on the bench and have it be as close to realistic as possible. Again, silly, right? Sounds easy, right?

Wrong.

This bench was the bane of my classroom last week. We are finishing up six-paragraph essays on our animals and drawing/painting our creatures on the bench, which took a lot more time than it really should have. Luckily, through a ton of help from Chelle (my co-worker and an amazing artist in her own right), we managed to finish the bench on Friday....a mere 10 minutes before our Valentine's Day party (which was another headache by itself!).

I will try to get a picture of the bench on here for you to see, but know this. We've tried to put these animals on a small, two person bench: caribou, wolverine, polar bear, lemming, arctic fox, albatross, weddell seal, leopard seal, southern elephant seal, walrus, harp seal, narwhal, orca, blue whale, emperor penguin and adelie penguin, all on a tiny bench. (although, we did have a ton of fun with Elf jokes featuring the narwhal, "Hello Buddy!....Hi Mr. Narwhal!")

I'm just hoping our bench is respectable on Saturday (although I'll have to hear about it, because I'm probably not attending....unless someone buys me a ticket! : )

Dios te bendiga!

My Dad's Big Find

Those of you that have had the pleasure to meet and know my father, know that Larry loves to hike. Those of you that have known me for a while, will remember me telling you about all the fun-filled times my father and I had as he dragged me throughout the wonderful state of New Mexico for the two years that we lived there.

Now, hiking with Pops is an adventure more than anything else. Dad has this tendency to meander about the trail, veering off to check out even the slightest oddity on the trail. Other that killing rattlesnakes (that are always a threat, even though they're 25 feet off the trail!), this is one of the things that he loves and one of the things that I love about him. He loves to explore.

Well, all of Pops hikes and detours finally payed off. A few weeks ago Pops was leading a hike somewhere near Socorro, NM. As he was wondering around the desert, he happened to see a cave just a touch off the trail, so in true Pops fashion, he and the others ventured off the trail to see what they could find. And this is what they saw:

The basket

Now obviously this basket didn't look like this when they saw it, but they found this 1,500 year old basket in the cave! How awesome is that??? They took some pics, left it and then after showing it to his archaeologist in Albuquerque, Pops took them down there the next day. They dug it up and took it back to the big city to check it out. Rumors are that it is almost museum quality and one of the few baskets of its kind found in the area.

Dad and the basket after they found it.

Congrats Pops! I hope that basket makes it into a museum because I would love to wonder through it one day and see your name on the card beside it!

Dios te bendiga

My glorious Saturday

Good news!!

After working out last Saturday with my buddy Richard....I returned to my house and....

MY POWER WAS BACK!!!

Glorious day! I was so excited. No longer was I Dupree!

My Week Off....

So it continues!!

I thought that Tuesday was the worst of it....no school, lots of ice and a touch of snow. I was really looking forward to the rest of the week....and then Wednesday came.

We received 3-6 inches of snow on Wednesday, which, on top of the snow we already had and the ice.....meant that school was canceled on Wednesday. This extra snow also did a number on the trees and powerlines down here, which were already burdened.

This was taken outside of Target on Wednesday morning

Then I heard that fateful sound on Wednesday morning: "BOOM" I had woken to an apartment with power, which I had thought a blessing (in the night, before going to bed I made a bag of clothes to "getaway" in case something happened in the night. Tuesday night I had seen a transformer explode and watched as the powerline was on fire on the ground in the snow: awesome). That fateful boom was it for me, the power, went out.

This was the view outside my window on Wednesday morning.

The clean-up has been ongoing for the past 3 days. We received a bit more snow on Thursday, but nothing substantial. Roughly 200,000 were without power and they actually said that this was worse than the wind storm we had back in September (My Buddy Ike). The trees and powerlines just couldn't take it and many of them cracked, snapped and came tumbling down.

To be honest, the city wasn't prepared for it and how could they be? Rarely do they have significant snowfall during a winter and the sun/melting/freezing cycle hasn't helped us too much. Luckily it's supposed to warm up today and it is going to be in the mid to upper 40s tomorrow, which should help significantly.

I was lucky enough that my buddy Richard had power, so I stayed with him and his wife Sarah through all the fun. It was nice having a warm place to stay, so hopefully I didn't wear out my welcome!

Here's to hoping it's warm, wherever you are.....

God Bless

My buddy's baby

I would like to announce to all my faithful readers, my buddy had a baby!!!

Big congrats go out to Brad Money and Tiff on the birth of Eveah Ann Money.

Thoughts and Prayers are with the new family. God Bless!!

My Southern Snow Day

You're not going to believe it.....seriously, you're not.

Today....we had a snow day!

It's been crazy. Rumors are that it snowed between 2-4 inches last night and then today we've had sleet mixed with rain all day. I couldn't believe what I heard on TV when they said we could, could get another 3 inches! Could that mean a snow day tomorrow?? : )

The problem with snow and bad weather in general down here, is that Kentuckians have NO IDEA how to drive in this type of weather. First, because they never drive in it and secondly, because all bad weather causes them problems. It drives me nuts to be folllowing someone at 5 mph down the road when the road isn't that bad. Earlier today I was following this Pontiac Vibe that was seriously going 5 mph!!! I was so frustrated. I nearly honked the horn, but then remembered that they don't get weather like this often....so I had to just deal with it while the driver figured it out. (although it was awesome to fly past everyone on the main road-in the lane that wasn't cleared yet. Hilarious!

God bless!

My New Surrounds (a blessing)

This post is more of a thanks as opposed to a "pity me" type of post, so please, no notes tell me you're sorry....thanks!

Greetings to the faithful few that continue to check this lovely thing, even though I haven't posted in roughly four months (bad, I know).

I know it's been a while and for that I apologize again. I know I need to get better about this and I suppose I can apologize all day long, but actions speak louder than words.

I normally keep my personal life out of this lovely little place, but today I'm going to include it. I had recently been dating a nice girl, but unfortunately that has ended and I'll be honest, I was/am a bit hurt and frustrated about the whole thing. Now I'm not here to talk about that or to put her down, but instead I'd like to focus on what has happened in the past four days, for it has truly been a blessing.

I had been slightly frustrated by everything for about a week and I received a call from my buddy Fitzy on Monday night. It was one of those calls that only a true friend could make, that was difficult at the time, but necessary. Shaun basically called me out. He asked me my feelings, what I thought about everything and then asked me what I was doing still in the relationship. Why was I continuing to go through with it, or as he put it: "If she was Venezuelan, would you still be around?" --Good point

That night I also spoke with Dustin, my long-time friend from high school. He spoke along the same lines as I echoed my frustrations.

When everything went down Wednesday night, I was a bit upset, although I saw it coming through interactions and time spent together during the past week. After it happened, I received an amazing call from my buddy Brad, a true brother of mine and he really picked me up and dusted me off a bit.....telling me not to worry, to just live my life and the woman will come into it....and that I shouldn't spend any more time worrying or thinking about it.

I was irritable at school on Thursday as well, but my teammates, as they always do, had my back. Chelle was her amazing self (filled with anger and some profanity about how she felt towards "that stripper" as she called her....and no mom, she wasn't a stripper). Beth was comforting and reminded me how much that girl didn't deserve me. I have to admit, they really know how to make someone feel good about themselves.

Thursday night I was with my buddy Richard and his wife, who echoed the same thoughts. She wasn't worth it.....live your life and the one will walk into it....just watch.

Last night was the same story....I was with Richard again, as well as my friend Mike and his wife Jessie. Jessie said the same, the girl was selfish, you're awesome, don't worry about it and just live for a bit....it'll come.

I guess there are two points at me telling you this: The first is that Louisville was the right place for me to come. In a matter of months I made some amazing friends that have my back and are extremely supportive. I can't tell you what it meant to me to hear them say those things and to comfort me in a difficult time.

Second: Maybe they're right. I've had four separate people, independent of one another, tell me the same thing: Dust yourself off, live your life and she'll come. Don't worry about, don't push it and when it comes, it will be easy and a good fit.

So that's where I'm at now. I watched some footy today, I'm going to a bball game tonight and I'm going to try and live my life.....not pushing it....but not being totally oblivious to it either. ; )

I hope things are great where you are,

God bless