JSB time again

I can hardly believe that another JSB has come and gone again for us. This made number 10 for us since we have beeen here...that is also hard to believe. Every year I really look forward to going and seeing what the Junior class has come up with as a theme and skit etc. As we were on the bus driving to the "secret" location I came to the conclusion that I enjoy it so much because we have been class sponors in the past, and for four of the ten years we have attended, we were either putting on the banquet or being honored at the banquet. I think that helps me take an "ownership" of the event in a way I would not have otherwise. Although parts can get a little long at times, mostly I really enjoy the whole evening immensely. This year the theme was Lord of the Rings. Admittedly I have never read any of the books, nor have I watched any of the movies, so some of the evening was totally lost on me. However, there were many there who were able to follow better than I. For the skit this year, the Juniors wrote a "forgotten" book called The Company of Many, The Pursuit of One (not sure how to write the title correctly on one line) in which they included all of the seniors and their sponsors. In the end the focus was on ONENESS and the authors included the verse from Ephesians 4:4-5 (NLT) "For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all." All in all, that was very well done and a great reminder to the Seniors as well as the rest of those in attendance.

All photos are clickable...

Posing with Treebeard...the main ent in the book (getting my info from KL) as I have no clue.

Varsity Bball team hamming it up.
Akiko and me. We sat at the same table and had a nice time visiting.

With a former Spanish student.

Our Iranian student. She looked beautiful and we were glad she decided to attend the event.

With friend, Corinne, a fellow teacher. She is also interested in pursuing a nursing degree...I think she's already started her process though.

She and I as Aragorn and Arwen (not sure who is who! LOL!)

Posing with friends.

Enjoying the food.

Me with two of my Spanish students (whose moms are in the pic above with me and Jacki...and you tell who belongs to who?). Love these girls!!!

Wonder what next year will bring? lol! We were actually asked to sponsor the next class (this year's sophomores which includes the girls above), but felt we couldn't give it the two year commitment that is needed to see it through. Our friends, the Steinkamps, are sponsoring them though and they are the ones we sponsored with both other times. It will definitely be weird to have them go through the process without us, but we feel it was the right decision for us at this time.

A fire, some heroes and a birthday

Last Saturday there was a "small" fire at the school which destroyed both fifth grade classrooms. As many of you know our son, KL, is in fifth grade so his was one of the rooms affected. Apparently it started around 6 a.m. with a outlet (possibly a rodent of some kind chewed through the wire which started the fire). Around 6:15, as the guard was doing his rounds, he noticed smoke coming from the building and alerted the front guardhouse, which in turn called the Bomba (fire department). Within fifteen minutes Bomba was on the scene putting out the fire. Because it was caught early and the response was timely, the fire did not have time to spread to the adjacent rooms (counseling and special services departments), for which we are extremely thankful. Most of the items and resources in one of the rooms was lost while the other suffered a lot of loss and A LOT of smoke damage. Within a few hours there was a large group of people on the scene trying to salvage what could be saved and cleaning up the items that could be cleaned up and used again. Due to the fact that the classroom where I teach my classes is only used for my two classes daily, it was chosen as the temporary location for one of the fifth grade classes which means I had to move my classes to another room. After a few snags in getting things going in the new room, I am starting to settle in a bit. It's amazing how much of an adjustment it takes to get used to a new place, both by students and the teacher! I finished up my fourth day there today and I still felt like it was a pretty rough day! To add interest to it all, I am due to be observed and evaluated by the principal in the next couple of weeks!! Ugh...I'm sure I will survive (and in all honesty I really enjoy and respect my principal and I know he will take everything into consideration when it's all said and done) but I would have been more comfortable in my own classroom!

This is the classroom that had it the worst.

KL's room.

Melted AC unit. Pretty amazing really.

And a melted desk.

Another view of the worst hit room.

See how the keys just popped right off the computer.

KL and other grade five students helping scrub down desks.

Another look after much of the stuff was removed.

Sorting and doing inventory of what was salvageable. The lady in the pic is one of the fifth grade teachers. KL has her for Social Studies.

Sweet friend, Athy, helping record the list of books that will need replaced. She has twin boys who are in fifth grade as well.

More students getting involved.

I spent quite a while sorting through the desk and wiping down everything from the soot damage.

We are thankful that nothing more was lost or damaged and that no one was hurt during the fire. Estimated time for the rooms to be restored is about one month. We only have about 6 weeks of school left...so it remains to be seen if I get back in my classroom this school year or not.

On to other things...today was hero day in the elementary school. KR chose to dress up as me (I certainly don't see myself as a hero, that's for sure) and KJ went as our pediatrician, Dr. Chew. Both were kind of thrown together at the last minute, but turned out fine. This kind of thing is not really my strength, and sometimes it's more stress than I like to deal with, but all that considered, the girls enjoyed it and it all went well.
They always start out with a little parade so everyone can see the costumes the kids picked out.

KJ's preschool class.

KR's class.

And finally, today is Greg's birthday. It was a very busy day, but we managed to celebrate with cake this evening (after watching Americal Idol). Some of his students showered him with gifts of coke (and water), and coffee. I think, overall, he had a nice day.

Easter pictures

I haven't gotten around to posting sunrise service pics and the ones of the kids I took on Easter morning.  Once again the service was nice and the testimonies from the kids were amazing.  We had Easter lunch at McDonald's (can you believe it...where is a good ham when you need one??!!) Then it was home to hunt Easter eggs and enjoy candy (courtesy of a friend who brought back a couple of bags from the states in March).  What a great day!

Our good friend's son, Riley, giving his testimony before the baptism. You have seen him in pics before...he's KJ's favorite guy :-)

The crowd at the beach prior to the baptisms.
This is a shot of those who got baptized (and their parents/supporters).
KR and friend enjoying the waves.
Before heading to church.
Had to get one of me and my girls! :-)
And the girls in their coordinating dresses.
When I was growing up my parents would hide white bowls of Easter candy for us to find.  Although I didn't hide the bowls, I did add candy to them this year for fun.  It brought back fun memories for me and I think the kids enjoyed it as well.

Ear surgery

...no, not on one of the kids, but on the dog. A few weeks ago Dollar developed a hematoma in her ear. The vet wanted to try medication to see if he could stop the bleeding, and use surgery as the last resort, but after three treatments, the ear wasn't really getting any better so we had to take her in for surgery last week. Unfortunately I didn't think to take pictures of the ear before the surgery, but here are a few after the fact. I don't know if vets use these kind of contraptions for dogs post-surgery in the states, but they are very common here. They are funny-looking but effective :-) I don't know how long she will have to wear it, but most likely for another week or so.
Her left ear is the one that had the surgery.

Look Alike Meters...

Sorry, dear...I guess none of our children resemble you more than me...I hope you aren't too torn up about this! lol!

I had lots of fun doing them though :-)

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