New Couches and New Pet

Monday we had the usual day of work and then in the evening Justin goes to play Ultimate and I go to my MK meetings. This week when Justin got home he decided enough is enough with the YMCA league. The people there are ridiculous to play with and so he's finally quit. Hallelujah!

Tuesday our school began the YMCA program. Kids come to different classrooms after school and do activities from 2:30-4:30. I'm running a few programs on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Tuesdays we play Ultimate and Thursdays I do "Mad Science" where we do science experiments for fun. Next week we're building hover crafts!

Wednesday we had another lock down at school. I was walking to the restroom during my prep, but when I got to the courtyard the gate was locked to get to the office. Then both counselors and the dean turn around the corner and tell me to go back to my room because we're under lock down. So much for my potty break! We were locked down for nearly an hour. I got an email with the subject THIS IS NOT A DRILL and to stay in the room until further emails. They didn't announce it because the 8th graders were taking a serious test, and they didn't want to ruin their concentration. But that fouled everything up because not every teacher read the email before the end of the period, so when the bell rang there were kids in the hallway! So I opened my door and had them come to my room. That was a mistake: I should've let them go to another classroom. They were hecka annoying. But the threat turned out to be fake. A "reliable" student said a man with a mask and a gun approached him on his way to school and said, "You better go home; there's going to be a shooting at the school today." So he went back home and told his mom who immediately called and told the police and the school. The police were at the school and investigating all over the neighborhood. They gave the okay to lift the lock down and I guess the kid came forward saying he made it up. What freaked me out was after school we had an emergency staff meeting where they told us all this, but I didn't doubt for a second that it was a real shooting. Good thing I always keep both doors locked at all times. It makes it annoying for kids who are tardy, so kids make sure to be on time to my class...and in the event of a real shooting, I'm immediately locked down. Crazy stuff!

Papa Jon came to stay the night. He took us out to Sonic for dinner. The past two weeks have been rough with just the one chair to sit on, but we survived. Thursday I had a training at the district building so I had a substitute. Most of my kids were awesome because I threatened them with chromebook privileges. 4th period was awful, so Friday all my other classes got chromebooks and they did not. Oh baby, they will learn my rules and expectations! I had a break-through with one of my students after we had a crucial conversation: a "come to Jesus" moment if you will. I just hope it sticks with her over the weekend #WishfulThinking

Saturday we got a new dog and our furniture came! Rocky's family will be living abroad for the next 10 months so he is our baby until they get back next August. He does NOT like the fence we put in for him, and he HATES to be left alone, so we're hoping he adjusts quickly. But we love him soooo much! And our couches are fabulous! LIFE IS GOOD when you go two weeks sitting on the floor and then have fabulous furniture delivered to your house.

I taught the RS lesson today on Leadership. Kind of an interesting topic for church but it was fine. We passed all kinds of sign up lists around to get people to help with the Halloween party. Apparently we're supposed to be calling it the "Harvest" party because people are offended by Halloween, but we are rebels and say, "If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it's a duck!" It's costumes and trick or treating people -- get over it! But that's two weeks away and we're excited. Today I'll be working on my costume so I'm exctied :)  Lots of changes this week but thankfully they're all good ones!

Rocky! He loves to be wherever we are. He is super mellow just like Duke but he stinks way less.

New Furniture! It's AMAZING!

My mad scientists

I had them burn their initials in newspaper using a convex lens. But then the sun went behind a cloud. This kid got the best results with the burning.