Mom's Birthday

Today is Mom's 78th birthday. Yes folks - 7 tens and 8 ones. Seven and 4/5 decades. Seventy-eight percent of a century. So, in keeping with the fact that I am the "Evil" daughter, I am including a photo of Mom as we usually see her. She has fallen asleep while reading the newspaper (as she always does). This makes the reporting in The Post Register look bad, but the woman just seems to find the printed word to be a narcotic! Read something, and BLAM! Off to the land of nod.


Lest you think ill of me, we are taking her out to dinner tonight and are plying her with some pretty decent gifts. We love Mom. Everybody does, but she belongs to US! Of course, she will likely never realize that I have posted this picture, because should she read this blog, she will have already fallen to sleep by the time she gets this far. hee - hee - hee


Here is a photo of Bailee's "thermal buddy" for the Regional Invention Convention. It is stuffed with rice and can be heated in the microwave or chilled in the freezer. We think Huckle, as she named him, is pretty cute. Even Hadlee (the dog in desperate need of a haircut) was impressed. She didn't qualify to go on to the state competition, but she's going to sell more of her buddies to make money for summer intensive dance class.
Today was one heck of a day at school. Some of my boys were playing basketball and the game ended up in a fist fight. Now, given this group of children, this is really not a very big surprise. They have issues with appropriate responses, self-control, and good sense in general. Frankly, there is just more testosterone flowing through the fifth grade than is prudent. Post-recess we were out in the hall with about six boys trying to dig down to the bottom of it all. Well folks, we did a lot of digging, but we never "found the pony" so to speak. It seemed appropriate that my teaching colleague, Kathy, gave me another great quip - "I'm gonna hang you up and beat you like a pinata." Oh my. There really are days, you know.


We've had more snow - which promptly froze on the roadways. The trip to work this morning was a real peach of a time. By tonight, most of it had melted off, which was a real blessing. The skies still remain cloudy, overcast, and threatening however. Winter is SO not done with us!

Tomorrow we are meeting with our district superintendent to discuss budget cuts that will need to be made next year. You hear so many rumors that we are all on edge. So far the possible cuts that are being bandied about include:

• doing away with kindergarten
• cutting out busing
• dropping all sports below 10th grade and cutting all sports except football and basketball
• cutting gifted and talented programs
• pay cuts
• firing non-tenured teachers
• upping class sizes to 35-40 students
• cutting all electives below 10th grade
• cutting out music, art, and p.e. programs
• raising student fees
• cutting the janitorial staff
• firing aides and support personnel
• dropping the lunch program
• cutting or doing away with supplies and textbook purchases

You can see why we are all a little nervous to hear the truth. We know the cuts are going to be bad ... but how bad? I tremble to think. It seems to me the the best and most productive cuts would be to place a one year moratorium on testing. If we went one year without the Direct Writing Assessment, the Direct Math Assessment, Idaho Reading Indicator, and ISAT - we would save millions! It also would not hurt the children. Feature that.