Current Reading: The Bible-God's Word for the Biblically-Inept: God's Word for the Biblically-Inept by Larry Richards

I know that it's been a really long time since I have written. On the one hand, I have been very busy - school has hit like a ton of bricks. I have a new colleague, and we had some miscommunication - that seems to be settled. We finally have the kids placed, except for one of my students that wants to come back... The ones who want to return to ESOL cannot!

We also have a new principal and assistant principal and the pressure's on because we are a "needs improvement" school. And, to make things all the more lovely, one of the areas where we "needs improvement" is in the LEP (Limited English Proficiency) Student area.

My new administrators seem fair and nice enough, but there is still a lot of pressure to get with a new program. I am head of the Diversity Committee, we have Open House coming up next Tuesday (surprise!), I am organizing a "graduation celebration" for the families of exiting ESOL students, and I have a bunch of documentation to do.

In addition to this, I have a new Special Education teacher being broken in - and I do mean, broken. Just about every day, there are wild riotous jungle-like sounds eminating from the next-door room. I have taken over the class once in an emergency, and almost killed a kid! ;-) I have also held a couple of kids for her, and alerted the administration. Her colleague is fed-up, as they are also "needing improvement."

At home, my husband is still unemployed. I cannot fully go into the situation with him, as it would be telling tales on his business, but the fact is that it affects me, too. And this is not the place to talk about it. Soooooo....

I have stalled a bit on the crafts business, but that is still in the works. I am in organization mode right now, at school and at home. I will need to be organized to manage all that I have to right now.

This past weekend, I attended Folk Fest - it was just across the highway from me. I am so glad I went! It was so inspiring. I made a lot of contacts and got a lot of ideas!

I also had a great birthday - my sister-in-law made dinner for me and family. My father was in town, putting in a brick patio below my deck. It looks great, and as soon as the weather cools and the West Nile mosquitoes die, I will have to have a dinner party.

I had better sign off - I am trying to go to bed at a decent hour and rise early. I have been laying out my clothes the night before, getting up, putting them on and my contacts in, feeding and walking the dog, grabbing a Diet Coke (with Lime), and heading for school. I have stocked my fridge there with breakfast and lunch foods, and have been trying to eat breakfast and put on make up at school.