Race for the Cure

Yep, that's right, another year of Race for the Cure. It was a blast. This year I didn't really know if I was going to run it because of Saturday Detentions, but when I told my principal I would not be able to make it too Saturday Detention that morning on time he told me to get a group from the school together to run/walk it. So I did. I had one student out of the ten that told me they would run with the group actually show up. Many of the teachers were suppose to come as well, but there was a ton of last minute emergencies that had to be attended to. There were a few teachers that showed and it made me feel a little better. Although, there was one teacher that paid the registration fee and bought the team shirt and everything, but stayed to get a picture with the Spurs Coyote, yell out the school's name over the loud speakers and then leave. It was interesting. I wonder why he even showed up. Oh well, he at least came. It was great being able to spend time with the one student that was there. I learned a lot about her. While we were there, we ran into many more kids and families from the school who were with different groups. One of the families had an uncle that dressed as the Pink Panther. It was awesome! They took about an hour and half to walk the 5K because everyone wanted to stop and take a picture with the Panther. My group, of course, had to get a picture with them. It was one of my students so naturally I had to get a picture. All in all, it was a great day. Waking up at 4:30 in the morning, getting downtown for cheap parking by 5:45, not leaving until 10:30, then not not getting home until 1pm was a great. I can't believe I am still awake at this time. I tried to take a nap, but couldn't. Dang, I need one too, but alas, I am sitting at my desk at work trying to figure out a sub schedule this week for all the teachers that are going to be absent. After this I don't want to go home because Leland won't be there since he is out of town reffing a semi-pro football game. I will figure something out though. I sometimes do that. I can be creative, well, when I want to be that is. Or maybe I will go home and call it an early night. We shall see. I have to get back to work. Only four more weeks until summer vacation, whew, it's getting closer.

Another 3-Day Weekend

I am a little glad that Easter came later this year. It has given me two weeks of 3-day weekends. While I love that, it also reminds me that this is the last break I have until May 28. I know I am spoiled since I have summer's off, but when working with kids at this time of the year, you really do deserve it. Plus, I don't just sit around and be lazy, nor do I go on all these wild adventures during the summer. I do all my CEU's and get caught up on all the other things I have been needing to do all year, but have not been able to do it since I have been at work. Those long neglected doctor/dentist appointments, fixing things that have been broken, and packing to move into a new place all have to get finished in the summer. Anyway, I digress.

It is Easter weekend and what a wonderful weekend it is! Today, my mom gets into town and Leland and I will take her to Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner to celebrate her birthday which is tomorrow. And Earth Day is tomorrow too! Leland's aunt and one of his cousins will also be in town to visit his cousin that is stationed at Ft. Sam right now. On top of that his dad may be coming in too. We are going to have one great Easter dinner! I am so excited! Which means, I have to make my bunny cake. I can't believe I almost forgot about that. Hopefully with all of these people I will take some pics, but I don't think that will happen because I always seem to forget to do that, waa waa.

Aside from all the people that will be here and having a blast, the Easter weekend is the greatest celebration of them all outside of Christmas. Easter weekend is the time in which our Savior, Jesus Christ, burst forth from the grave and brought us the opportunity to live with our Heavenly Father again. Without the Atonement, we would not be able to receive our full glory. We would only know justice, no mercy. We would not be able to repent of all our wrongs. We would not have any hope in this world. I am so grateful for the Savior. He truly loves us and died for us all. The greatest gift a friend can give is to lay down his life for another. He really is our greatest friend. I like to think about how blessed the Earth is to have that great event happen here. If you think about all the worlds that have been created and all the planets in our solar system, we were the one's that had the Savior come and fulfill the great plans Heavenly Father had. There are other worlds with other beings that did not get this great blessing. We did. It may not have happened during my lifetime, but it happened and I have been greatly blessed because of it. For those of you who think I am some religious zealot who believes in aliens you have it all wrong. It is amazing the peace and knowledge the gospel brings. The doctrines and principles that are taught are everlasting. If you have ever wondered where you came from, what your purpose on Earth is and what will happen after you die, then visit www.mormon.org to find out more. The only way to know is to find out for yourself. You may not believe everything that is there, but trust me, you know of it's truthfulness after reading some of the content and then experiencing things for yourself.

I didn't mean for this to turn in to what it did, but I am happy it did. It's amazing what you start your post with and what you end it with. Have a Happy Easter !

Things That Make My Heart Ache

I don't know why this came to mind today, but as I am sitting in my office thoughts keep running through my head that I feel need to get out. I know, it's a downer of a post, but sometimes in life we have these downers. It's all about our perspective in how we deal with these things that make us able to learn and grow from them. These are in no particular order. 1) A kiddo I have known for 5 years and feels like my own kid swallowed 30 pain relievers to try to escape the pain and confusion she is facing. Hardest part, She didn't tell anyone she was having these feelings until it happened. She is doing fine now, but I will always wonder what is going on. 2) Parents who do not let their kids fight their own fight and try to work things out on their own. 3) Parents writing nasty accusatory letters because they still have a bully complex. Get over it! 4) People who never take responsibility for their own actions. You can show them on tape doing something and they will not take responsibility for their actions. 5) NO BLUE BONNETS! 6)People who try to hide who they really are because they are made fun of or bullied when they do. 7) Bullies 8) Those who have a hard time accepting gospel truths and only want to ridicule because they are too hard-hearted and blinded to see that they are only hurting themselves. 9) Couples who have been told that they cannot have children that actually want them then seeing people who don't expect to get pregnant and when they do they don't care. 10) Children and animals who have been dumped, abandoned and/or abused by people, family or not, that do not care or who think they are more powerful because they are bigger. What's great about recognizing the things that make me feel blue? It will help me to not become those things in the future. Blue bonnets is just something that I missed this Spring. We have not had any wildflowers this year because we have not had the needed amounts of rain. I love the blue bonnets in the spring, but this year the places that I trust to have them and bring a smile to my face, has none. Everything else are personal traits that I know I have control over. As long as I can recognize those things in my life, I can strive to become and do better.

Dear Battle of Flowers,

Oh how I love that you are the one random day off during the school year and give me a four day weekend every April. I do not know why you are an SA holiday, but I am so very grateful you rescue me in the middle of the month and give me the mental vacation I need every year. Where have you been all my life? Why are you only in SA? I don't really care, but I love you Battle of Flowers. Please continue your reign as the random day of the year for a school holiday. In all gratitude, Katie P. =0)

Never Been Happier. . .

that it is the weekend. This week seemed to drag on for-e-ver! I think it mostly had to deal with the longest Friday of my life. In one day at work we had class pictures, two presentations from St. Mary's Pre-Engineering program, and a PTO fundraiser. Class pictures went pretty smoothly. The right person got it all organized and there were so many great people that volunteered their off periods to help without being asked. It was wonderful! The only issue, since it was class pictures, was the free dress day. How hard is it to listen to the major things of what not to wear? Seriously, I must have said it 15 times in each homeroom the day before, announced it at lunch for all students a week ago, sent it home in the Wednesday Folder and it is in the handbook that skinny jeans are not allowed at any point during the school day or as part of the school uniform. The most irritating part, parents told their kids to wear the skinny jeans and sent a note with the student addressed to me that they are allowed to wear the skinny jeans because they do not have any other kinds of pants to wear. They obviously can wear their uniform pants, they do not have to wear jeans on a free dress day. Really?! What kind of parent buys their kid or allows their kid to wear only skinny jeans? Then, what kind of parent writes a note thinking that it will excuse their kid from having to face the consequences of them not wearing the appropriate clothing? Grrrrrr! I think there was one class that followed the rule to perfection. I was so proud of those kiddos :) In the future I will only allow those kids free dress. The presentations were scheduled during the homeroom times, so 30 minute presentations. I don't know why, but the presentations lasted 45 minutes cutting into the 8th graders lunch by ten minutes and then for the high schoolers that attended it cut into 20 minutes of their class time. All it takes is a little organizations and some guts to cut off the speaker in order to do what is right for the kids. Finally, the PTO fundraiser. I had community service volunteers that I had to keep track of and I was the only administrator there to oversee things. Thankfully, the PTO was on point. They did a great job. The main event of the fundraiser was the faculty vs. students basketball game. Sadly, the students won, but it took them six years to finally beat us. We only had about six people that were anywhere close to athletic on our team and the students had the entire boys basketball team and part of the girls basketball team playing the entire time. On top of that, we didn't have real refs so the student team was fouling all over the place and nothing was called. On a good note though, I haven't seen those kids work hard ever. It was nice to see what they are truly capable of doing. Hopefully, they continue to work at that rate into their adult years. Saturday was not so bad. It was actually a great break for the world. Leland and I were able to go to Chris Madrid's for the best hamburgers ever for dinner and then to the Spurs game. It was a pretty good game; although, I did get a little bored and had to look away. There is this thing that if I watch a game the Spurs always lose, no fail. During the time I was looking away the Spurs gained a huge lead. The Spurs won and all was right with the world for that moment. The Spurs were having their "fan appreciation night" and "Mormon night". It was an evening of free stuff and a little inspiration. A group of missionaries from the SA area sang the National Anthem and another group presented Sean Elliot (former Spurs player) with his family history of up to 5 generations. It was a sweet little showcase of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The whole evening was something that I have been needing for a while now. Now, I can look forward to a four day work week. It is awesome when you get a random day off of work for something like Battle of Flowers. To this day I have no idea what Battle of Flowers is really all about, but I am happy I get a three day weekend out of it =0)

It's April

and that means General Conference! This month it was fabulous! Again, it was the rejuvenation I have been needing. All the talks were so inspiring and amazing. My father-in-law was in town and there was a was wondering what we were going to do for dinner. Since we had been laying around all day not doing much and ate a really big lunch at 3pm, dinner was not on the schedule. My FIL asked Leland if we were going to go out for dinner. Leland told me later that he would have normally said "yes we can go out" but since hearing the talk on keeping the sabbath holy he had to say no. I was so proud of him. The only time we have gone out to eat on Sunday is when we were visiting my family in Florida and they took us to Tarpon Springs because that was the only day we were going to be there and when my Grandma and Grandpa come to town (which is only like once every five to ten years). There were a lot of talks on the church's welfare system. I thought the leaders of the church really know what is ahead for this country and were basically telling everyone to be prepared and know that the church can help; until, President Eyring mentioned that is the 75 anniversary of the church welfare system. Even so, I think it is both reasons. My favorite talk of the weekend had to be Elder Quentin L Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on Saturday morning. His talk was about the women of the church and their strength and good works and charity. It was exactly what I needed. Many of the faults he listed, which are not bad things, are some of the things I struggle with on a daily basis. For example, knowing that what I did was enough. Elder Cook said at one time that women will do so much yet feel that what they did was not enough. I have been feeling that way quite a bit lately especially with my calling in the young women. I feel as though I don't do anything compared to the rest of the leaders. Even the mom with four kids ages 3-12 does more than what I do for the young women. I also know my situation and what I am able to do with the situation I am in. But, hearing the words of Elder Cook really made those feelings wash away, at least for the time being. I am grateful for his words. There were a couple of other talks that I truly enjoyed that I hope more people were listening to, but since I can't remember them off the top of my head, I will have to wrote about them in another month or so when the conference issue of the Ensign comes out. I am short on time today because I have to go let the kiddos into the building. I will hopefully be able to write more about all the events of my life in a little later. Have a great day!