Busy with Robotics

My robotics team has been hard at work and I have been hard at work with them. We got our team t-shirts in the other day, the kids are wearing them in the picture above. We got alot of compliments about our shirts today.
Last weekend we worked the concession stand during the wrestling tournament. This is how we raise money for buying our t-shirts and everything else. The kids really enjoyed themselves.
Then on Tuesday night, we had a videoconference session with all of the other teams in the school district. It is kind of like a show-n-tell for the robotics teams.
The kids were excited to tell other teams about their progress. I ordered pizza and we had a great time. The team sure is keeping me busy. I think I've put in 70 hour weeks the last three weeks in a row easy. And those are just the hours that I work AT school. That doesnt even count the hours I put in planning and grading at home. GEESH!
I'm so happy to have a weekend without alot of school work to do. Now I can get to the other stuff I've been neglecting...housework, cooking, laundry, dance class, reading, a bath and a facial, maybe a couple movies. I better squeeze all that in pretty quick cause then, come Sunday, I'll need to get some more school work done again. Does it ever end? Maybe not, but I love it!

Enjoy your weekend!

Yesterday was an 8

Some days I'm more irritable than others. Yesterday was a high irritability day. Here are some of the things that caused my irritability yesterday...

My neighbor refuses to give me 6 more inches of parking room and I have to cram in between his truck and the bushes at the end of the lot. This requires me to turn my truck at an angle, drive into my parking space, and then straighten out. Normally this is not a huge issue, but this morning when it was VERY icy out, the wheels didnt want to cooperate. Is it really so much to ask to give me just a little more room?

The person who is supposed to be my (and about 10 other people's) SIOP coach, has never shown up to work. NEVER. They are going out to their other two sights and helping them, but not us. Today, all of the people who are supposed to have this person as a SIOP coach were told to get together for a quick meeting. How are we supposed to know if she's our SIOP coach, if she's NEVER come to our school and even done so much to introduce herself? And would it really be too difficult to come over to the school and introduce yourself?

I had to take my truck and drop it at the auto shop AGAIN. I took it over on Monday for an oil change and when I went to go pick it up at the end of the day it hadnt been done because they didnt have the parts they needed. Why would you schedule an oil change if you didnt have the parts that you needed?

The oil change was $210. Seriously?

My right big toe hurts. It's been hurting off an on for a few weeks and progressively getting worse. Doctor says that I either strained it or maybe over extended it while working out. He says just to lay off of it for awhile. How do you 'lay off' of a toe? I'm trying to lose weight here, doc, and you're telling me I cant workout for 4-6 weeks.

It drives me crazy when people start their sentences by saying they're not trying to do something that they are clearly doing. Like one person today at our inservice, "I'm not trying to point fingers, BUT". But you clearly ARE. Why start your sentence that way? It just puts everyone on the defensive.

Don't ask me a question and then disregard my answer. Or, worse yet, not even listen to my answer, by starting a conversation with someone else in the middle of my answer. If you didnt really want to know my answer, then WHY ASK?

Then there are other people to whom you ask a question, but they just go off on some other direction and dont even answer your question. Would it be so hard to just answer the question I asked?

I woke up with a sore throat that got worse as the day progressed. Seriously? I'm going to get sick again? I hope not.

So, when one of my colleagues dropped me off to go get my truck at the end of the day, he jokingly asked, "Do you want me to go in let them know that you're already an 8?"

Then, I went home and fell asleep on the couch for 4 hours. I didnt even eat dinner. I was so tired. I feel much better now, less irritable. I think I just needed some sleep.

Weather day!

School was cancelled today for weather. Yesterday it rained and then it all froze in the night, so we woke up this morning to frozen roads. So, you think that mean I get the day off, right? Wrong. I'm at work now, waiting for all of the teachers to get together to start the afternoon portion of our inservice day. It's still pretty nasty outside with high winds, some snow, some rain, and a whole lot of gloom. It is getting colder as the day progresses and there is snow in the forecast, which I'm looking forward to because all of our snow got rained on in the last couple of days. I WANT SNOW!

Forecast for Kuskokwim Delta

Updated: 9:40 am AKST on November 11, 2009
High surf advisory remains in effect from 9 am this morning to 9 PM akst this evening along the coast... Strong wind through tonight...
	Now Strong wind through tonight... Strong southwest to west wind gusting to 60 mph continues to pound areas of the Kuskokwim Delta mainly west of a Saint Marys to Bethel line. Peak gust at have reached 51 mph at Mekoryuk and Toksook Bay. Bethel has recorded a 49 mph peak gust in the past half-hour. Light snow continues over portions of the Delta. Around an inch of accumulation is expected. Temperatures slowly falling to near 30 degrees.
	Today Snow. Snow accumulation 1 to 2 inches. Temperatures dropping to the mid to upper 20s. West wind 30 to 40 mph except west 35 to 50 mph with gusts to 60 mph along the coast. »
	Tonight Mostly cloudy with scattered snow showers. Lows in the 20s. West wind 15 to 30 mph. Along the coast...west wind 35 to 50 mph decreasing to 15 to 30 mph after midnight.
	Thursday Scattered snow showers in the morning...then numerous snow showers in the afternoon. Snow accumulation up to 1 inch. Highs around 30. West wind 10 to 15 mph. »
	Thursday Night Mostly cloudy with a chance of snow. Lows 10 to 20 above...warmest along the coast. Variable wind 10 mph.
	Friday Mostly cloudy with isolated snow showers. Highs in the lower to mid 20s. North wind 10 to 20 mph. »
	Friday Night Mostly cloudy. Lows in the mid teens.
	Saturday through Monday Mostly cloudy with a chance of snow. Highs 20 to 25. Lows in the mid teens.
	Monday Night and Tuesday Mostly cloudy. Lows 15 to 20. Highs 20 to 25.

No excuses!

Listen....just because I've made the commitment to write everyday for the next month, does not mean that you can just neglect your commenting duty. Usually I get at least one or two or three comments on each blog post, but for the last 8 posts, I've only gotten 2 comments....in 8 days. Come on! I need your comments. I need your support! Get it together out there!

:)

I know you're out there reading. Where have all the comments gone? I miss you guys!

1st place!

Avery competed in his first wrestling tournament of the season this weekend. It wasnt actually the first tournament, it was just the first one that he's competed in because he's had pink eye most of the season. He is wrestling the 125 weight class this year. He weighs in at around 121 right now, but started the season at 127. He lost weight just from training, not purposefully trying to cut weight.
The picture above shows Avery in his first match of Friday nights tournament. I think this picture is cool because I snapped it just as the ref blew his whistle and you can see that Avery was quicker than his opponent off the line to start. He won this match easily. The kid he is wrestling is a first year wrestler and one of my students. The boy is very antsy in class and I was the one who recommended wrestling to his parents as a possible outlet for some of his energy. So when this tournament come along, I told the boy to come and get me when it was time for him to wrestle and that I would cheer him on. Then I went out there and saw that he was wrestling against Avery. I told him that I'd have to cheer him on next time. :)
Avery wrestled a couple more matches with some more experienced wrestlers and had some really good matches. The second match, he was behind in points throughout the entire match and then in the last 10 seconds earned 3 points to win. In his third match, he fought hard the entire way through and was winning throughout the entire match, but not by much. Then in the third round, fatigue overcame his opponent and he won with a pin.
In the championship round on Saturday morning, he wrestled against a kid that he had already beaten (but almost lost to) in the second round. It was a tough match and Avery was losing for most of it. Then at some point, the other kid was on top of Avery trying to take him down and as Avery was trying to get out from under him, he accidentally elbowed him in the mouth. The kid's front tooth went through his bottom lip and there was a lengthy time out while the coaches and refs worked to get the kid patched up. They even had to clean some blood off of Avery's back. After that, the kid came back pretty strong and pulled out some more points, but Avery hung in there until the end and was able to tie it up. The match went into overtime, where Avery won with the first take down.
He was pretty proud of himself. He fought hard in every match and often it was just the fact that he stuck it out to the end and kept fighting that allowed him to win. I just wish another kid didnt have to have gotten hurt in the process, but that's just part of the sport.

Saturday night pie

I got a pie pumpkin in my veggie box last week and decided to use it to make a pumpkin pie (didnt see that coming, did you?). I found a recipe online that sounded like it had potential. I had a friend over for a couple drinks and she made pumpkin bread, while I baked pumpkin pie. It was a fun little Saturday night thing to do (Bethel style fun).
I made one with nuts and one without. I dont personally care for nuts, so I donated that one to the church supper club. Every friday night during the winter, the church provides one free hot meal to anyone in the community who needs it. The other pie I kept for us and tried a piece today. I was...alright. I really didnt taste very pumpkinny.
Pumpkinny or not, I can now say that I have baked a pumpkin pie truly from scratch. It was fun (Bethel fun) and turned out great. It's nice to have some free time again to do things I want to do in addition to the things I HAVE to do.

Happy Pumpkinny November!

Flu shot!

We got our flu shots today. Seasonal flu in the right arm, H1N1 in the left arm. I asked if we should still get the H1N1 vaccine, if we've already had the flu and they said yes. The woman that was fielding all the medical questions said that they have no way of knowing if it was really h1n1 and are just ASSuming that everyone who gets the flu is getting the h1n1 strain because that has been the pattern. She said that the only people who are being definitively tested for h1n1 are those who end up in the hospital.
They give the flu shots in a mass dispensing exercise, just as they have in previous years. It was pretty chaotic, but it was controlled chaos and we got in and out of there pretty quickly.

Happy flu season!

The Patch

Avery has had a true lazy eye since he was a little kid. A true lazy eye is when the vision in one eye is so bad and the other eye so good, that the brain decided to just ignore the signals coming from the bad eye in favor of the signals coming from the good eye. As he grew up, we worked hard on improving the vision in his bad eye. When he first came to live with me permanently when he was 8 years old, his vision in his bad eye was 20/200 (his good eye was 20/20 and still is). We worked on patching his good eye to force the brain to accept the signals coming from the bad eye. We also did atrophine drops in his good eye, which completely wipe out the eye's ability to focus, virtually wiping it out. Anyhow, we were able to get his vision in his bad eye down to around 20/80 by the time he was 10 years old.

After that, the doctors said that the eye really doesnt change much and patching any further would be pointless, so we stopped. Additionally, putting a corrective lens on a true lazy eye does no good because the problem is not with the eye, but with the brain and its refusal to accept the signals. For the last three years, the vision is his eye has stayed the same...around 20/80...EXCEPT for this year! This year, the doctor tried a corrective lens and it actually made a difference. He was able to bring his vision down to around 20/60 with a corrective lens.

So, we decided to try out a contact is his bad eye for awhile and see if it helps. Additionally, the doctors said that there has been some research recently that suggests that the 10 year age is not a fast and hard rule, that there has been some evidence that patching can help in later years. Given that, and a consultation with Avery's long time optometrist in Ohio along with a consultation with the local optometrist, we decided to try patching again. The agreement was that we would give it a go through one box of contacts, which would be three months since he is only wearing them in 1 eye. Furthermore, we agreed that Avery would try patching for a couple hours a day while his contact is in and while he is doing something visually intensive such as watching tv or playing video games.

It was all going well until Avery got pink eye. Then he couldnt wear his contact, or his patch. And we had to throw away that contact. And he couldnt wrestle, which was awful for Avery. Then he got rid of his pink eye last week and everything was going good again until he woke up Monday morning with pink eye again. Seriously? So, he started his medicated drops again and we threw away another contact and we washed everything again and he missed wrestling practice again and couldnt travel again. It sucked. I was trying to figure out what we forgot to wash and it transferred back to him again. I thought maybe it was his coat, so I washed that. Then....Avery was sitting around wearing his patch the other night and he turned to me and says, "Maybe the patch has pink eye." And I said, "You know what, you're probably right." Now we've had to throw away his patch too.

Me quiz

I stole this from Tamara at Watching the Grass Grow and thought it would be fun for NaBloPoMo. Tamara, I still cant comment on your blog, but I'm reading and I would comment if I could.

1. Where is your cell phone? Coat pocket
2. Your hair? needs help
3. Your mother? going to be here in 13 days
4. Your father? never met
5. Your favorite food? hashbrowns
6. Your dream last night? teaching
7. Your favorite drink? iced tea-sweet with lemon
8. Your dream/goal? happily married with children
9. What room are you in? living
10. Your hobby? blogging (duh)
11. Your fear? that my hard work wont matter in the end
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? another country
13. Where were you last night? home
14. Something that you aren't? lazy
15. Muffins? blueberry
16. Wish list item? new kitchen equipment...knives, dishes, pots and pans
17. Where did you grow up? las vegas
18. Last thing you did? plugged in truck
19. What are you wearing? pj's
20. Your TV? off
21. Your pets? none
22. Friends? far away
23. Your life? busy
24. Your mood? positive
25. Missing someone? everyone and no one
26. Vehicle? covered with snow
27. Something you're not wearing? makeup
28. Your favorite store? kohls
29. Your favorite color? purple
30. When was the last time you laughed? today, talking with my uncle
31. Last time you cried? Sunday
32. Your best friend? a great mom
33. One place that I go to over and over? school
34. One person who emails me regularly? kas
35. Favorite place to eat? humpy's in anchorage

Haunted House

The BRHS haunted house ROCKED as usual this year. It was a ton of work and for awhile I was not sure that it was going to happen, but it turned out great. The pictures are in the order of the path through the haunted house. The kid on the locker was warning people not to go in.
Then there was a spook to jump out of the closet. Then people got to choose to walk through a dark tunnel or crawl through a dark tunnel. And at the end there was a scary person to jump out and scare you. (below)
Next was a trip through the grave yard with the grim reaper.
Next up was the doll house with creepy dolls all around.
And a little girl getting killed and screaming alot.
Next up was a tortured person all chained up.
A trip through spider alley next.
Then the students set up a "sensations hallway". It had gooey stuff on the walls and bubble wrap on the floor and fishing line hung up so that it drags across your face.
Then was a tour through the hospital, starting with the crazy guy standing out front with his parasitic twin on his shoulder.
The dentist was willing to rip your teeth out.
And the surgeon was cutting people open.
To get out of the haunted house you had to walk through this crowd of clowns. What is it about clowns that freaks people out so much?
There was lots of screaming and a ton of (fake) blood. We definitely had our fair share of kids who came out crying and hugging their mommies, even kids clinging to the guides. FUN!