I'm addicted!

No, not to anything BAD! Just to Facebook! Yes, it's true . . . I'm finally on Facebook after saying I would never do it. But I'm so happy I am because it's just TOO MUCH FUN!!! Hopefully I'll remember to keep this up, too! P.S. It being summer vacation and not much going on doesn't help! Oh well . . . . . . .

City of Rocks

Just wanted to post some pics of this beautiful park we went to a couple of wekends ago in Idaho called City of Rocks--it's amazing (especially if you're a rock climber, which I'm not) but we did a little climbing and hiking around. It was VERY fun--enjoy!!

Congratulations!!!

It's been awhile since my last blog but I have good excuse--it has been a crazy last couple of weeks at school! Graduation was last night (YEAH!!) and I went up to support my ESL students who graduated. I was very proud of them as they walked across the stage to get their diplomas. What a great accomplishment, especially because many of them are the first in their family to graduate from high school! One of our exited ESL students from Chile was even a valedictorian!

Now, I know I shouldn't have favorites, but I do. It's Jesus. I'm SO proud of him and that's his picture I posted above. He really worked hard to graduate last night. He did have his moments where he was a little lazy and got behind but, when push came to shove, instead of giving up and dropping out, he worked really hard, did some night school, etc., and ended up getting his best grades ever his last trimester of high school. I worked closest with Jesus so it just meant so much so see him walk last night. It makes the low pay worth it! He was very grateful to me and kept thanking me and even told me he would miss me--that meant a lot, too! I wish him all the success in the world because he's a good kid and deserves it.

My guilty pleasures!

I decided I needed a fun, happy blog after my last one so here goes: I love American Idol and Dancing with the Stars! They are my guilty pleasures (especially after the finales this week). One word--WOW!!!!! This season was the best ever for BOTH shows! To be honest, I loved all the contestants and didn't care who won but, I do like underdogs so I usually go for them, but it was too hard to decide this time so I didn't even vote. Well, I guess the majority of the voters think like I do but actually do vote because BOTH underdogs won on both shows!!! Cool!!!! Shawn Johnson on Dancing with the Stars and Kris Allen on American Idol--I do love a good shocker!!!

So, CONGRATULATIONS TO SHAWN AND KRIS!!!!! MAJOR KUDOS to Gilles and Adam!!! They were awesome, too, and deserved to win just as much as the others! But for me, I always love a good underdog story!!!

Always something!

You know, when my friend was telling me I should start a blog, I really didn't think I would have anything to blog about. Well, I was wrong! There seems to always be something going on, especially with work. Who needs my own kids when I have 30+ at the school!

This is actually a sad post, though, at least I'm quite sad about it. I have a student who has been missing a lot a school recently. So I called home and spoke to her mom. It turns out that her mom has cancer and is having surgery tomorrow! They don't have anyone else--she's a single mom and just has her one daughter, my ESL student. HOW SAD!! I just wanted to cry for both of them! My student told me today that the prognosis is good if the surgery goes well and they're able to get all the cancer. I hope so! We're working with them to help the daughter be able to finish up and pass most of her classes since she needs to be with her mom to help her.

I'm glad school is almost out for the summer, but this definitely puts a damper on my usual excitement this time of year!

It gets better!

I blogged too soon . . . it was actually 2 of my ESL students smoking the marijauna in the locker room! Good job, boys!!! Ah yes, what has happened to the good ole days when you could give them a good whack?

Oh yes, I can't forget an honorable mention to one of our girls who is really behind because she went to Texas for a few weeks but went back to see a boy!!! UGH!

A Bad Day

I just thought I was having a bad day because I didn't get any sleep last night because of my husband's snoring! Little did I know that it would get worse. One of my ESL students was caught smoking marijuana in the boy's locker room!!! AAAAARGH!!!!

I spent the whole afternoon in the office with my student and our resource office translating, etc, for the student and for his aunt who had to come pick him up. He ended up suspended for a few days, was given a ticket, and has to go to juvenile court now. I really think he's learned his lesson, though, because he is VERY remorseful! He admitted everything right away and was very honest. The officer was impressed by that and put it in his report so that should help in court. But, my student is also worried he'll be sent back to Mexico (he's here on a visa so I think he'll be ok but who knows). Hopefully this was enough of a scare to keep him from doing it again and he'll learn his lesson! Overall, he's a good kid who's trying and just made a stupid mistake--don't we all! I just hope it's his only mistake that serious.

Proud Wife

My husband, who I call Sparky (he calls me Skippy), just finished his first college class since he went back to get a math degree. His final was last week. He knows about this blog and when I was talking about some posts with a friend this weekend, he asked, "Did you write about my grade?" He's very happy . . . and so am I! He got a straight A!!!! One of the only A's in the class, in fact! He thinks there were only 2 or 3. It was a hard class, a lot of students never even finished. But he stuck it out and aced it! I'm VERY proud of my hubby! Way to go, babe! I saw how hard he worked and he deserved it! So here's for you, Sparky! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!! YEAH!!!!

Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Ok--I know that cinco de mayo was yesterday and it's now seis de mayo! Oh well! I love cinco de mayo, probably because I love the Mexican and latino cultures. I especially love it when I ask my ESL students who are from Mexico what cinco de mayo celebrates and they don't know. Ok, I'll be nice, half did and half didn't. I guess there are some Americans who don't know their history, though, too! But it that REALLY bugs me since I'm such a history buff.

We had a little cinco de mayo party in our ESL class yesterday (well, the girls did, the boys just sat there and wouldn't even eat the great food the girls made). I made horchata, a yummy traditional drink of rice and cinnamon (the boys did drink my horchata, though).

I really love how different cultures here in the U.S. are trying to keep their cultural identities in tact. Unfortunately, that wasn't always the case. For example, many years ago, when a Mexican family immigrated to the U.S. and their children were born here, those children never learned to speak their parents language, Spanish in this case. They were completely assimilated into this culture, forgetting their traditions, only speaking English, etc. The same was happening with many Native American cultures, as well. But now these different groups are keeping their traditions and languages alive in their children and their children's children, for which I say, BRAVO!! I mean, what an asset to speak two languages and to know why you do! We are suppose to be a melting pot, so, I feel we need to embrace all the cultures that are here and try to respect their traditions. We definitely enjoy them--look at how many non-hispanic Americans have embraced and celebrate cinco de mayo!

Sick of being sick!

I'm sick of being sick! Yes, my ear infection that I had a couple of weeks ago went away but last week, something else sprung up--or I just never got over what I had before and it's back! I have a sore, scratchy throat and a cough, all of which I had right before the ear infection. I also just found out that mono is going around the school where I work--could that be it? There are also bad allergens in the air and we are in the process of building a new school behind the old one so, the construction dust is bad. So, am I really sick or is it just a mixture of allergies and dust? If anyone out there has any ideas, please share! I'm sick if being sick!!!!!!!!

Good--no, GREAT news!!!

I'm keeping my job for next school year!!! YEAAHH!!! I just found out Tuesday evening when I was at the school to translate for parent-teacher conferences. Our principle just happened to be there so I asked him when we would know about our jobs and he said, "Do you want the good news?" Well, DUH!?! (I didn't say that, of course) He said they had just decided that very day to keep the ESL aids--WOW! But, we had lost our jobs before Tuesday--fortunately for me and the rest of us in the district, they found some funding to be able to keep us!!! SO, to whoever found the funding and to whoever fought for our jobs and to whoever is responsible . . . THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!!

Spring Break

I'm back to school today after our too short Spring Break. Unfortunately for me, I was sick to entire time--I had a bad cold that wouldn't go away. Finally, my husband made me go to the doctor after my ear started hurting so bad I couldn't sleep, and guess what? I have an ear infection! Don't small children just get those? I guess not--lucky me! My mom said she couldn't remember me ever getting one when I was a child. Even the doctor made some comment about how he usually only sees ear infections in children. But, this is just typical for me. I didn't get chicken pox until I was 26 and I still haven't had my tonsils out. Oh no, I hope that's not next!!! YIKES!!!!

Luckily I was on antibiotics by Easter, so I felt good enough to go to my sister-in-law's for Easter dinner with my husband's family. We had good food and a fun Easter egg hunt. It was a beautiful spring day and a nice time was had by all! Sparky (my husband) helped our youngest niece (she's almost 2) find her eggs and he was SO CUTE holding her little hand and walking around the yard with her. It made me a little sad thinking that we could have been doing that if the baby we lost would have been born. I know I shouldn't think of the "what ifs" but sometimes I can't help it! Enough of feeling sorry for myself! It was a good holiday with family--that's the most important!

Scared!

The school district that I work in was just informed that it has to cut 5 million dollars from the budget for next year. That means my job is in trouble--especially for me because I have the lowest seniority of all the ESL aides in the district. They said if they cut jobs, they will look at need then seniority. They are looking at a lot of other options so there is hope I won't loose my job but I'm still very nervous. Especially because I carry the health insurance for me and my husband. We should hear something by next week. Hopefully it will be good news! I would much rather they cut our pay across the board or raise our insurance cost then loose my job!

Yeah--it's finally over!!!

We had our second and final performance of our Multicultural Assembly this past Friday. It was fun and we all had a great time but, it was also a little stressful so, like the title says, yeah, it's finally over (and I'm SO glad about that)! This performance was shorter and much easier, though. We performed for a local elementary school and those kids are always our best audience. It was shorter so we only had 4 performances this time. AND . . . the best news of all . . . I finally figured out how to post pictures so instead of my rambling on more about it, you can see some of the performances from both assemblies. Didn't the Mexican skirts turn out beautiful?

One down, one to go!

I survived another Multicultural Assembly! It went very well and the student body seemed to really like it. Both audiences (we always do 2 assemblies because the entire student body wouldn't fit in our auditoriam) were very respectful towards our student performers, which is always a concern. My ESL girls from Mexico did great with their dance and we got the skirts on time. They were perfect and very beautiful! We have one more performance at a local elementry school next week and I'll post some pictures then (if I can figure out how to do it--I'm a little slow getting into the digital age and learning how to do all of this--but I'm slowly coming along with help from my family and friends)! I have to say, out of all the performances, my favorite was another one of my ESL students. She's Tejano, which is basically someone who was born in Texas to Mexican parents, and she sang a beautiful Tejano song, her first time singing in public. It was a huge deal for her and she was very nervous, but she did it! I'm SO proud of her for getting up there in front of her peers! She did really well and the audiance gave her a huge round of applause! It was a great experience for these students to share their cultures with their peers and for the auidance to get to know them, as well!

That time of year!

Well, it's that time of year again, for me, at least! It's time for our annual Multicultural Assembly at the school where I work. This will be our 4th. I'm the co-advisor to the club and I love it! I usually work with just the hispanic students but being a part of this club allows me to know more students, especially those from other cultures. In fact, I'm in the minority when we meet!
This year we have a great mix of cultures. We have 3 Mexican performances (which has caused me stress because I have been in charge of getting the skirts for one group. We thought we could borrow some from a previous year, but we only got one, so now, we're having the other four made . . . in one week! The assembly is next Monday (hopefully they will be ready on time)! We also have a Native American hoop dance, a Middle Eastern dance, Irish step-dancing, a Japanese performance, an Italian aria, and swing dancing!

Stay-tuned to see if I survive the rehearsals and our girls (they're not happy they don't have skirts to practice in yet and that they're not the colors they wanted). Don't you think they should just be grateful that I'm even getting their skirts when usually we require our performers to provide their own costumes? Ah, teenagers!! Hopefully I'll have some great pictures to post later!

Welcome to my first blog!

Seriously, I never thought in a million years I would be doing this but . . . here I go! It's all my friend's fault. She talked me into it and now I'm actually doing it: posting on my very own blog! Do wonders never cease? This blog will be about my life, which includes my job working with ESL students (always fun stories there) and my family, which includes my wonderful husband who I lovingly refer to as "Sparky".

Sparky and I were married 5 1/2 years ago. I was 33 and he was 43. Neither of us had been married before. He likes to tell people he robbed the cradle--I don't think 10 years is that bad! We've been trying to have a baby to no avail. We finally tried in vitro last year and I did conceive, but I miscarried 2 months later. Neither of us want to try again at this point so we have decided to adopt. But, we don't want to go through an adoption agency. We would rather do it privately or become foster parents with the intent to adopt.

All of this has been put on hold for now, though. This is because my husband became a victim of the economy last fall when he lost his job. He has decided on a whole new career now--teaching. So he's back in school studying to become a high school math teacher! In the mean time, he substitute teaches and works part-time for our school district as a tutor. It's just amazing what life throws at you but we're making the best of it and feel good about his decision and the path our life will (hopefully) take in the future!