What a week.

Theme: Colorful

We were spending a couple of weeks at our condo in Northern Utah. One morning I woke and our bedroom was glowing red. Now, in 1971 my family was evacuated in front of a raging fire, so glowing red is cause for immediate heart palpitations. I raced to the window and saw that the entire complex was glowing red, but our bedroom is in the basement so I couldn't see what was causing the red. I went upstairs onto the balcony and couldn't believe what I was seeing. The sunrise was flaming off the clouds and there were THREE rainbows. I was only able to photograph two, but am hopeful the three will always stay in my memory.

First, to Sam - I don't remember what songs the Hillary people were considering. I was so busy pitching a fit that they would waste donated dollars on such a trivial matter that I didn't even look at the choices.

Re: our teacher action. Contrary to predictions, the district denied the charter that would have devastated our district. The petitioners will now go to the County with the petition, which is fine because as a County charter, if they don't make budget it's the county's problem, not the school district's. The district still did not do the minimum to provide competitive salaries for our teachers, but I think we will see something (although we will still be at the bottom of county rankings even though we live in the most expensive city in the county). Now we're in a welcomed lull before negotiations begin.

Good thing, too. Last Monday was a normal day. Tuesday classes were preparing for Open House. My last class ground to a total halt as the administration pulled one, then another (a total of seven) students in and out of my class in a drug investigation. We have this about every three years or so. Three of my students were suspended and arrested (13 years old!) for possession and another suspended for carrying (I guess she was "just hiding it" for someone else.) Ironically, another teacher and I had JUST been talking about how, for the last 13 years or so, we have always been assigned the students most likely to be hauled out in a drug raid, which is exhausting for a teacher. We have an appointment with the AP tomorrow to talk about our morale and to explore this pattern. Maybe this is the evidence I need to make my case, huh? There are four grade 8 history teachers and none of the others had students involved. Only me, and mostly in one class (BTW, the AP is 100% sure there were two other students in the same class involved, he just couldn't prove it.) So, after dealing with that last period, I had to stay after two hours to get ready for Open House, then put on a happy face for the evening. It took the AP another two days to finish up his investigation and took me until Friday to come to terms with it. I dragged myself home by my fingernails (figuratively).

Tuesday was (FINALLY) the last day of our Cingular contract and DH and I happily skipped to the local Verizon store for our new phones. (It used to frustrate him that he had to climb out onto the golf course to make a Cingular phone call in Utah while our guests would lounge on the sofa to make their Verizon calls.) I am NOT a phone person, but have been lusting after the pink Razr phone for almost two years . It's mine now, with "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" as my ringtone (except for DS1 who has the "Asteroid Field" from Empire Strikes Back and DS2 who has the "Imperial March" from same.) The down side - DH is pestering me with text messages (as I feared).

This will be the last week of intense instruction for the year. Next week is Newsies while I grade finals and final projects, and the following week is graduation week which means packing up the classroom and turning in keys. I have a fairly busy summer planned but it should be fun. Just wish gasoline was a little cheaper.

Saturday and today were relaxing days puttering around doing maintenance. Watered plants (always therapeutic), pruned, small repairs. Managed to get all the ponds working again and love to hear them. Yesterday I spent the day scrapbooking with my sister. Very relaxing and, again, good therapy.

In stitchery and quilting, I am working on Paper Panache's Nativity Advent for a friend. My goal is one block a night to get it done before I leave on my trip in July, but I make so many mistakes that I'm really slow. I'm also still working on Bent Creek's lighthouse sampler for the same trip.

Guess I better stop writing and go stitch on something, huh?