Super Mom!

Admit it guys... it's true. There is no other explanation.

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mothers Day to all you wonderful moms out there. Thank you to my amazing wife, the mother of my three children. She does incredible things every day. Thank you to my own mother for all she has done. And a special greeting goes out to my eldest daughter, Jessi... a great mom. Happy Mothers Day also to my mother-in-law who did a great job with her own family. The fact is, I am surrounded by women who are all excellent examples of what a good mother should be.

Happy Mothers Day, Ladies!

Success!

A few months ago I made a post about Tami's new business--- Downsize Solutions. After advertising in local publications she didn't get any response at all. Recently she was about ready to chalk up the business as a dead end when she got a lead on an estate sale. She bid on the job and got it.

She had her first estate sale yesterday and today. Right now I can tell you things went very, very well! The client and the company both made a favorable profit. I am very proud of her. The sale could not have gone any better. The client gave glowing reviews and promised to spread the word loud and proud about this new local business.

As I type this, Tami has at least two more estate sales booked. She also has leads on several more. Things are off to a good start and it will be very interesting to see where this all leads.

Way to go, Honey!

Won't be long!

As we work our way into the second week of May, the time is drawing near to open the Meyer Resort. The Meyer Resort is otherwise known as our above ground pool. Believe me, it's nothing fancy, but we sure do enjoy it. I'm targeting a Memorial Day opening, but it really depends on the weather and time. It takes the better part of a full day to do the job right... I'll let you know when it's time to take a dip.

How I feel

This is how I'm feeling right about now:

Nothing significant

Sorry folks. No significant posts today. I was very busy getting the yard ready for my brother-in-law's retirement party. We will be hosting it on Saturday.

Look for a better post tomorrow.

Elliott Video Part 2

The video of Elliott I posted yesterday seemed to be working fine. This morning as I logged onto the blog, it doesn't seem to be working. I'm just wondering if you all are able to view it or not. It seems strange that it was working last night, but not this morning.

I was so happy it seemed to be working, but now I'm bummed that it's not.

P.S.
My colleague pointed out the video may just be blocked by my school's wi-fi network. I hope that's all it is :-)

Elliott Video

I have been looking for ways to enhance the blog. I certainly don't want it to become stale. As a result, I thought I'd dabble in posting personal videos (i.e. those not from Youtube). Here's my first try. I hope it works because this is one of my favorites. To view the video in full screen, click the lower right side of the video. Make sure the sound is on too. I know you won't enjoy this is as much as I do, but here it is anyway :-)

Implosion!

You all know me pretty well by now. When relaying a story or reporting events, I am not in the habit of exaggerating or sensationalizing things. I'm not much for adding details for dramatic effect. In general, I tell it like it is. You also know I spend  lot of time telling about my life as a teacher. Readers of this blog are familiar with my challenges of teaching low-income students in an inner city school district. Since the first day of this school year, I have been working my tail off keeping my sixth grade students on task, learning and trying to avoid situations where they want to take each other's heads off. In short, these kids fight ALL THE TIME and most of my day is spent trying to help them get along (a task I usually fail miserably at). This has been an uphill battle all year long and every day is a delicate balancing act. With that being said, I can tell you things are beginning to crumble around me. The best word I can think of to describe what is going on is IMPLOSION. My sixth grade class is imploding before my very eyes (despite my best efforts to prevent such happenings).

Webster's dictionary defines implosion as: an inward collapse from the effects of outside pressure.

Any shaky supports that have kept this class together throughout the year are now beginning to fail. It started slowly at first, but the implosion has increased in speed and intensity within the last week or so. I have sixth graders biting each other (yes, I'm serious... biting), choking each other (yes, I'm serious about this too), fist fighting, pushing, shoving, kicking and constantly arguing. I feel like I'm always rushing around putting out fires. Then as soon as I put out one fire, another springs up behind me. Then when I put that fire out, another one flares up... and so on, and so on, and so on.

I'm no mind reader, but I bet I know what you're thinking. "How in the world can you get ANY teaching done with all that going on?". I only have one reply... good question! How indeed!

I hope you don't think I'm being dramatic. As I stated before, that's really not my style. It's just a sad commentary of my daily reality. Things are imploding around me and I feel hopeless and powerless to stop them.

Don't say... THIS!

In honor of National Teacher Day, I thought it might be helpful to tell you some things you should never say to a teacher. Clink the link to find out what they are:

Never say THIS to a teacher