A very eventful week!

Happy 44th birthday to me!  It turned out to be a wonderful day!  They sang Happy Birthday to me at the staff meeting, a class of 5th graders made a sweet book about all the things they love about me (all filled with pics of superheroes), and my sweet family took me out to dinner.  It was perfect!  The only thing I wanted for my birthday was to get my hair cut, highlighted, styled and have my makeup done to do pictures.  I’ll share those in the next post.

We had our final battle of the books competition and party on Friday.  The final one was in front of the whole school in an assembly- 5th grade girls team vs a 6th grade boys team and the girls one.  For the year we had 177 kids participate and 43 teams.  It was the biggest one ever.  The party required 180 cupcakes, 30 pizzas, and almost 300 cookies.  It was a HUGE success!!!  I already have kids putting teams together and starting to read for next year!

It was also teacher appreciation week and I found this beauty on my desk from all of the students in the school.  Apparently I am “supermsart” and a “pickerofgoodbooks”!

We kicked off our summer reading program this week.  We already have over 5,000 minutes recorded and are ranked 109th across the world which is excellent!  I did a superhero kahoot with each class which was a huge success!!!

Happy Mothers Day to all the beautiful women in our lives!  We had a fun night out to dinner and then they let me pick my mothers day treats!

I wanted to share this awesome picture of my great-grandmother reading to my grandmother.  Isnt this beautiful?!

Also, the best gift in the world, besides the awesome video Marisa made for me that had me in stitches this morning, was being able to talk to my girls so far away!  I miss them!

If only every week could be this amazing!

Anniversary, Avengers, and Accolades

We have had a very busy few weeks and definitely counting down the days until summer begins.  It has been a long year in many ways. 

We celebrated our 22nd anniversary on April 22- so doesn’t that make it our golden one?  We have had an amazing 22 years together and I can’t wait for all the years to come.  I am so lucky that heavenly father threw me in Bob’s path.  I am the luckiest girl in the world!

We had a wonderful lunch date last weekend and this weekend we took the kids with us to see Avengers.  I loved it to death!!  I laughed and I cried and I can’t wait to see it again!

We have been busy on the yardwork and garden.  We got the strawberries planted in the rain last week (before I came down with a stomach virus). I had to weed out and thin the raspberries which are starting to flourish!   We planted the onions yesterday.  We have been weeding the front tree and got bricks to make a circle around the bottom.  Next week we will plant some flowers and put the red wood chips in.  Both mowers died.  I guess after 10 years it is normal for them to die.  So, we got a new push mower that has  a miracle “self-propelling” feature which is awesome!  Still working on the riding mower.  We also still need to get the tomatoes in.

We are missing the girls, but glad they are doing well.  It was so fun to skype with them this week to hear all the fun things going on.

Alayna received her patriarchal blessing last which was a beautiful experience!  She is doing an awesome job on the school tennis team.  She is 9th on the ladder and really loves it!  She even mowed our huge back yard with the push mower and knocked out over 20,000 steps yesterday!

Tyler has had quite the week.  He did an amazing job in South Pacific and I was amazed at how many lines he had memorized.  It was fun to see him perform.  He was Cpt. Brackett and the character in the musical has many swear words.  He chose NOT to say any along with another LDS boy who was a sailor and did the same thing.  I was proud of them both.  They stood their ground, even when other kids in the musical made fun of them.  Sometimes it’s the small things…

He also got enough points that he will be inducted into the thespian society this week and received another cool letter in the mail along with a letter from the governor for his accomplishments!

Work has been busy as we are winding down the year.  This Friday is a our huge Battle of the Books finale (winning student team vs. teacher team in an assembly) and our huge participation party.  With 177 kids we have to get like 50 pizzas, 3 cupcake cakes, and we are making tons of goodies.  It should be a great day! 

I woke up one morning and found this beautiful treasure on my desk…

I kicked off our Superhero Summer Reading Program and I played a superhero Kahoot with each class which was a blast!  If we can beat our record I am hoping I can sweet talk this guy I know to come dressed as Batman and do a superhero assembly and sign his art work and books for 400 kids….And maybe his wife and kids plus his 2 brothers (that all may be related to me) will come along so we can have a huge assembly of a lifetime…

Ok I guess that is it for this week.  I have been having some health issues and have been doing some research.  It seems that 25% of fibro patients continue to get worse.  I know the stress from work as well as the huge amount of stuff we have had going on at home contribute to it- but the exhaustion and pain have been almost unbearable the past 2 weeks.  I hope this summer I can take some time to work on me and feeling better.  But I did FINALLY find an outfit for my big presentation this summer.  Clearly it will look better than it does with me just trying it on in the dressing room!

My heart is full…

This week was National Library Week.  I was overwhelmed by the kindness shown to me at the MS.  I was flooded by literally hundreds of letters, plus cards and flowers and they had a secret potluck of amazing food.  I was so touched.  Over and over I read letters from children saying what a difference I have made in their lives and how much they love reading now because of me.  The timing couldn’t have been better!  It was like hundreds of tiny guilt trips for me leaving and the kids don’t even know)

We had an amazing day with Mike Mullin!  What a great guy!  He did an assembly at the middle school and signed books for 2 hours!  His presentation was so exciting and full of energy and the kids just loved him!!!  Then he did the assembly at the high school and signed autographs for 2 hours, plus we had a very successful staff survival potluck.  Then I had arranged a tour of the Anamosa Prison (since he wrote about it but never went inside).  Then we had dinner at the public library where he did another presentation and signed books.  It was a long day for us both but I learned so much and it was great to be around someone so awesome!  BTW- I got to watch him break 3 bricks with his bare hand!!!

On Friday, Mary and I taught the professional development.  We made it fun by playing Kahoot (where everyone hooks in with their own device).  I made questions about things we didn’t know about all the staff members.  They loved it!  We even had prizes and provided popcorn.  Then we showed them how to set up their own staff webpage (which only 4 had done, including me and Mary) and how to make a professional ePortfolio.  Then we actually gave them time to work on it and helped walk many through it for the afternoon.  It was a HUGE hit and we have received tons of letters about how that was the best PD they have had in a long time.

I received a fitting gift in the mail this week!  I can’t wait to wear it!  Thank you Mom and dad!!!

So, what is the update on the job?  I went to meet with the superintendent this week and explained everything to her.  Long story short, because of even more budget cuts, they cant put me at the middle school fulltime and they cant afford me part-time and someone else at the HS part time, because it will cost them more money.  She was kind, a good listener, and told me that even she has seen what a difference I have made.  Apparently the MS principal went to her to see if there was any way they can keep me.  But I was told that the only way to stay was to stay at both the MS and the HS.  I explained to her that the ONLY way I would even consider staying would be is 1) we start on a completely clean slate.  None of this ever happened. 2) I won’t tolerate people spying on me and reporting to the principal.  If she has a question, she comes straight to me. 3) The para is transferred out of the library (that’s nonnegotiable) and 4) She NEVER EVER pulls me into a threatening meeting ever again.  She comes straight to my face if she has questions.  The superintendent said she would be happy to facilitate that meeting.  After much prayer and discussion with Bob (and being flooded with intense support from the MS), I decided I needed to start over with the HS principal if she is willing.  I have already forgiven her and interestingly enough, the speaker in sacrament cemented that what I was doing was right for me, those kids, and my family.  We worked as a family too so I can find ways to drop the stress and work no extra hours including not bringing work home.  So, will she meet with me?  I don't know. I have no idea what this week will bring.  But I know I am doing what HF thinks is best and I am doing all I can to stay for the kids who need me.  It depends on how the meeting goes whether or not I stay.  This way I contonue to support our kids in college until next summer where if we need to move, we can.  Wish me luck….

Grateful for a loving family and people who have my back

This is one of the toughest weeks I have ever had.  I have spent a ton of it in tears, but I am at peace now with the decision I have made.  For those of you who don’t know, I quit my job.  It is a very long story and I am not at fault.  I realized after some incidents this week that it is not good to stay and work in a toxic environment.  Library jobs are being cut everywhere, so how will we make ends meet?  I have no clue.  But I do believe in a loving heavenly father and I am trying to learn whatever it is that I am supposed to learn here and have faith that he will provide the job I need to keep going. 

I will say though that this has convinced me to stay home, get a job at home, and stay away from as many people as possible.  I am just too old for this.  When I told Alayna I quit, she said, “Now I’ll get my mom back.”  That speaks volumes.

On Thursday, the secretary at the high school came to tell me I had several deliveries.  Of Books?  No!  Flowers!  I went to the front office and 6 bouquets of the most beautiful flower shad been delivered to me by my loving Ribera family.  I cried.  They were a show of love and support- something I will never forget!

Yesterday was a fantastic day.  We ran errands, played tennis, started the garden and yardwork, got a new mirror for the downstairs bathroom, make enchiladas and rice crispy treats and spent the evening with ALayns. (Tyler was at some gaming night with friends.  By the way I guess he asked a girl to prom.  She said yes.)  I love staying up later, being with my family, and once I quit, my stress lowered big time.

Flash back: Easter was ok.  Conference was awesome and I made killer crepes.  But the kids got their own candy and I shoved it on the table.  No rainbow starburst trail for the 1st time in 20 years.  Oh well.