Savannah's Neopets story

I know that 99% of you probably have no idea what Neopets are. Don't sweat it. I wouldn't know if I didn't have a daughter who is so into it.

If you go to Neopets.com you will find a website for kids where you create these little creatures (Neopets). They look like a cross between a cartoon alien & a cartoon animal. The site is kind of like Webkinz, if you know what that is, in that you create your little character & then get online to feed it & take care of it. Only Neopets is bigger than that. They have a little newspaper where users can write stories about their neopets. It's called the Neopian Times. Savannah is sooooo beyond thrilled because now that she's 13, she is able to send in stories to be posted on the site in the Neopian Times. She's been waiting for a couple of years to reach this age. She lovessss her Neopets time & since she is a heavy-duty reader & writer, it was only natural for her to write some Neopet stories for the website.

Anyway, I promised that I'd post the link to her story on my blog. It's lengthy, but she'd love for everyone to read it if you have time. She is a very good writer, very creative & well versed. So here ya go: http://www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=469596&issue=409 (Her username is Babygirl229911. It says that instead of her name.) This is just part 1 of the story. It is "continued" each week, so when the next part to the story comes out, I'll post that link.

Photo Catch Up!

I just realized that I have a couple of events in my pictures folder that I've never shared here. Rather than spending a lot of time talking (err...typing!) I'll just share the pictures. I'm sure you'll be able to tell which is which, but just in case, these pics come from the kids' trip to the skating rink to celebrate the end of their summer reading program where everyone met or exceeded their goals AND Savannah's first football game of the season. Here we go..........

Samuel & Savannah, skating on the rink.

Samuel
Sarah
Savannah spent a lot of time like this....falling down & laughing.
Savannah & I before the football game in our matching band Tshirts.
All 230 members of the Junior High band. Savannah's right out in the middle, just to the left of the bank sign. Click on the pic to blow it up.
Again, click the pic to blow it up. Savannah's almost dead-center in this pic with her head turned toward the camera, to the left of the bank sign.

Sat Sept 12

Last night, we watched a pretty powerful documentary about 9/11 on the History Channel. I think I've seen every video & photo slideshow about Sept 11th ever made, but this one was pretty different. It was a collection of videos that amateur photographers took in Manhattan that morning. There was a clock spinning throughout the movie so you could keep up with what order things happened in. Very moving.

Two things that really struck me ---
1. In one scene just a couple of minutes before the towers collapsed, you see a person leaning out a window high in the building (above the level where the fires were burning an inferno out the windows). He/she is waving a white flag frantically trying to get someone's attention for help. I know that there aren't random flags in most office buildings, so you know that they took off their shirt or grabbed a tablecloth off the office kitchen table or maybe it was someone's white jacket. Who knows? I couldn't help but watch that person waving that white flag & wonder what was going on in their mind in those moments. I ached, knowing that I was sitting in my comfy living room literally watching the last minutes of this person's life as they waved that flag, begging for help from ANYONE who could possibly get to them & get them out of the building. Moments afterward, the building collapsed & undoubtedly, that flag waving person died.

2. In many scenes, you see firetrucks & police cars & all the authorities on the ground directing people away from the area. But what hit me like a ton of bricks was watching the firemen going into the building. I'm certain that most of those men didn't come out. Listening to a conversation of one fireman & his captain on the ground was hard too. And the 911 calls where the operators repeatedly told the people to "sit tight....we're coming...there are firefighters in the building....". I know that the 911 operators had to wonder if they'd be able to save them, if they were sharing those people's last moments with them on the phone.

Watching that documentary brought tears to my eyes, and I hope that never changes. I don't think any of us will ever forget the horror of that day, watching people jump from the windows to escape the terror inside the building....planes crashing into buildings before our eyes....knowing the level of sadness & grief going on across the country. :::sigh:::

The truth is, I don't do war movies or even the medieval time movies where there are battle scenes. I just can't 'take it'. I don't like violence, but more than that, I can't stomach seeing the last moments of someone's life in media. The very moment where that person steps from their earthly life into the arms of God is such a personal, sacred moment.

Today I'm praying for the families of all those men & women whose last moments were caught on tape, shown over & over & over for their families to see again & again. God bless those families who have to relive that day over & over, year after year. May we never take our loved ones for granted.

Thurs Sept 10

Update from yesterday's "ON CALL" post.

Remember how someone else volunteered to take Larry's call for him last night? Want to hear how that worked out? She didn't get ONE SINGLE CALL. She slept the whole night. Nada. Nothing. Zip!

Here we are, 10:48pm on Larry's final night & so far, nada, zilch. Praise the Lord!

On call

Larry started his week of being on call Friday evening (9/4). A full WEEK of call is hard, but if you can make it through the week, you're then off call for quite a few weeks. Maybe 7 weeks? I can't remember exactly.

I made a remark Saturday morning about the fact that I was amazed he hadn't received a call yet. Truly, when you're on call in his field it's unusual to go more than 12-18 hours without a call. He looked at me with shock & said "why did you say that?". In other words "you just jinxed me!". And JINX him I did! Let me see if I can sum it up for you.

Saturday 9/5
7:45 pm--call received
1:00 am--returned home

Sunday 9/6
evening sometime (can't remember)--call received, gone for several hours

Monday 9/7
10:30 am-- call received, 3 situations to go take care of
10:30 pm--returned home
11:00 pm-- call received

Tuesday 9/8
4:45 am--returned home
--3 hours of sleep--
9am-5:30pm regular work day at the office
6:30 pm--received call
10:30 pm--returned home
11:15 pm--received call, begged & pleaded for a coworker to take this ONE call for him...thank God he agreed!

Wednesday 9/9
midnight-- fell into bed & passed out pretty quickly
1:00 am-- received call; was able to handle the situation over the phone, but it took a while; he was now wide awake & couldn't get back to sleep & read a book for an hour or so til he fell asleep again.
about 3:00 am -- finally back to sleep
9:00-5:30 -- regular office time

THANK THE LORD, someone volunteered to take tonight's call time for him so that he could come home & see his family and get a full night's sleep for once this week! He'll go back to being on call after work tomorrow evening, but we're crossing our fingers that his final night of call will be much less crazy than all the other nights! Oh Friday morning, he'll surely be happy to hand over the reigns to someone else.

Boy, Oh Boy!

Tomorrow is the first day of my new school year. The kids went back to school a couple of weeks ago, but tomorrow is my first day with my new class. At the school where I work, the kids can attend Monday through Friday, Mon/Wed/Fri or Tues/Thurs. In the past couple of years that I've been there, I have always had a mix of the three, a handful of 5 day kids mixed in with a small group of 2 & 3 day kids. This year I have a first. I have 2 entirely separate groups of kids. I'll have 6 in my Mon/Wed/Fri class and 8 in my Tues/Thurs class. Why is that a big deal? It means I will be able to repeat things during the week without any of the kids having to do something twice. It means my lesson planning just got that much easier this year. Hallelujah! I love it!

Our assistant director moved over the summer & a fellow teacher took over her job. That left her classroom open. And the inevitable shuffle of teachers began by mid-summer when those who would be moving, going to work elsewhere, etc began turning in their notice. We have 13 classrooms at my school. Some of the classrooms have 2 teachers (one teaches the MWF class & another teaches the TTH class), but this year, for the first time since I've been there, we have something like 11 five day teachers. I love that! There are lots of new faces (teachers) but lots of familiar ones, too.

In my MWF class, I have 3 kiddos that I had over the summer, so that'll make the MWF class easier to adjust. The rest of the kids will follow the 'lead' of the three who already know me & know the way I run the classroom. The upside to the TTh class is that all but 1 of the kids is a returning student who's been at our school before, so that ought to cut down on the tears and sad kiddos on the first day.

While my nerves are fired up, I know tomorrow is going to be a good one. So here we go......time to start school!

I love teaching

This weekend I was given a 2nd copy of the book 32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny by Phillip Done. I love this book, so I passed my 2nd copy onto the 3rd grade teacher that 2 of my 3 kids have had. I hope she enjoys it, too. Having had that copy pass through my hands made me want to go dig out & re-read mine. So I did! I'm not quite done with it yet, but I am loving the book all over again. Just a glimpse of what I love---

from the back cover
I take slivers out of fingers & bad sports out of steal the bacon.
I know when a child has gum in his mouth even when he is not chewing.
I know the magic word.
I plan lessons while shaving, showering, driving, eating & sleeping.
I wear four leaf clovers & dandelions in my shirt pocket that have been picked with love at recess.
I correct pencil grips and spelling mistakes and bad manners.
I pray for snow days.
I hope April Fool's Day is on a Saturday this year.
I answer to both "mom" and "dad".
I hate glitter.
I leave "shugar" and "vilets" misspelled on Valentine cards.
I call on children whose hands are not raised.
I know that "colonel" is a really hard word to read and so is "doubt".
I know when a child does not understand.
I know when a child needs help finding a friend.
I am a teacher.

There are SO many sweet parts of this book. I'll share more as I go along, but right now I need to take off & get finished readying myself for work & hit the door.

As you read this today, remember my dad who is having back surgery. He had a spinal fusion surgery a couple of years ago (same surgery Larry had in '06) and today they're going back in to remove some of the hardware that is really bothering him. It should be a pretty simple surgery, but of course there is always a risk of complications. Please pray for a simple, straight forward surgery with no problems. I know he'd appreciate your thoughts & prayers.