There's nothing like a church gym on a Saturday Morning

Logan had a church ball game Saturday. I cheerfully offered to drive him and stay and watch. How I love the smell and feel of a church on a Saturday morning. It brings back such good memories. I have watched 2 older boys and now Logan....when I was a newly wed I went and watched Kim play and I love it.

This was a fun game to watch Logan play. I have been used to watching him play for AAU and the city and the Westlake team and it is hard work. He does not get to play the position he likes and they full court press and really rebound and move fast. Today's game was slow and easy and he had fun. He smiled and shot and moved around the court so well. He had at least 14 points and it was fun for him.

I played church basketball while I was growing up. I learned the rules and tried so hard but never was any good. I played with my sister and my friends and one of my friends, Denise, played on the school team and she was good. She put her shoulder down and drive the ball to the court. We had to wear sweats, no bare legs. We put our shorts over our sweats. My twin and I matched. We had the best time driving around and picking everyone up. We had to go across the water to play in the Bremerton building and it was far enough we had to have the whole team in the car so we could play.

Thanksgiving 2010

Now, now don't scoff.....I did it my way. I hate Thanksgiving foods. Yuk.

My family was part of the 8% that does not eat turkey on Thanksgiving.

We had ham, twice baked potatoes, Caesar salad, raspberry jello, rolls and 3 kinds of pies.

One chocolate pie and one peanut butter chocolate pie and a banana cream so I bought this chocolate bar to scrap over the top. Well, I forgot it.

Colby stayed in Washington and as a buffer against my sadness I did not make anything that I know he just loves, even the breakfast casserole that he loves was set aside and we had Dutch Babies, hash browns and bacon.

Bethany...you'd be proud!

Not of this! But I am! Logan dressed up in Colby's old Napoleon Dynamite costume. It was put away complete with the glasses in a case. But he was Dwight from the Office. Man was he cute that day!
Bethany, you'd be proud of this: I went online, found a tutorial to make a circle skirt. Figured out how much fabric to buy and made this off a tutorial online. The only thing was it was too short. (Carla makes me dress up at work and I hate it......)

Why did I title this Bethany you'd be proud? Because my whole life my little sister Bethany has sewed fantastically! She makes things without a pattern and sews wonderfully. That's why.

A Great Honor

At the start of the school year in August one of our fifth grade teachers (we have 6!) was pregnant and on bed rest. (She had miscarried twice before and we knew she was pregnant when school was out in May but we did not know the bed rest was coming.)

So,we hired a long time substitute for her the day before school was starting. The sub we had hired quit the day before school started because she got a contract job, it was stressful. Anyway, this long term sub was so great. It was all the 5th graders knew cause they had never met the real teacher and they voted her for teacher of the month!

We have a parent volunteer who makes a really cute ballot box every month and the children come down and vote for teacher of the month. The parent volunteer comes and decorates the doors of the teacher of the month after she has counted the votes. The children have to write a sentence why they are choosing this teacher and our principal reads them in the mornings. 3 teachers get chosen each month.

This long term teacher got chosen as teacher of the month last month. When asked, the kids in her class said it's the cute hair. I was puzzled. It's not that she does not have cute hair but she just has hair. I found out that when she teaches she always makes a stick figure on the white board and then she says lets give her some cute hair and the kids loved that.

As 5th graders they also go to Clear Creek an overnight camp out. She had gone with them and they really like her. She got her door decorated with her picture blown up and to decorate around that the parent who does the decorating gave her cute yarn hair. It's really a cute door decoration.

Tuesday was the last day of her substituting long term and the regular teacher came back on Wednesday. It is a transition for these students as they have only known the first teacher. We used her as a sub at our school Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. On Friday as she was checking out of the office 3 of her girls ran in and hugged her and were all smiley with her and it was cute. We will continue to use her for a sub when we can. We have a drama teacher who is having a baby at Christmas time and we are using her for her recovery weeks. As a drama teacher they see all the kids on a rotating schedule and I hope she has her old class while she is there!

New Kids at School

I was waiting until the end of November to post this but I just can't wait and I can always update it:
In the month of NOVEMBER we have already had 21 new students. Alot of first graders.

Today a new family came and wants to enroll their 2 students. It's a first grader and a fourth grader. I tell the first grader who is looking really scared that we have had a lot of first graders come into our school and just this month, just in the month of November we have had 7 new first graders. I get all their paperwork and have them meet the vice principal and as they are walking out the door the mom says to the little girl, "see it will be ok they have had 7 new students this month."
As the door swings shut I yell after her oh no, you heard me wrong we have had 21 new students this month and your 2 new ones make it 23!!!!!!!! She was long gone but I felt better.

I wish I could go into detail what it takes when we get a new student but I won't .......... sheese 23 in one month. It's the equivalent of a class but no wait our classes are huge with 30 in them and our population at our school ......... 1212 no wait.........1214 and 7 first grade classes FYI.

Schrammed

You've been Schrammed...no, not scammed, Schrammed:

A boy came into the office at 1:30. He said his stomach hurt. I said do you want to call your mom? I only asked his first name.....once again triage at lunch and I was a bit tired of the kids and this on and on onslaught of kids. We called and left his mom a message and I offered for him to sit on the nurses room bed to see if she called back.

Only a minute later a younger girl came in wearing a name tag so I knew her first name and I asked her last name and she said Schram. She said her belly hurt. I hate that slang word, it just rubs me the wrong way but anyway I called her mom and I did not even notice it was the same number I just called. Her mom answered live and she told me she was not coming home and talked to her and we sent her back to class.

I went back to work and in about 10 minutes our principal walked by and said as he passed the nurses room, Mr Schram what are you doing here? I jumped out of my chair and ran in there...Is your last name Schram?
I called the mom back and said have you listened to your message? I have your son down here he came first and then your daughter came down, you talked to your daughter but your son is still here!

She talked to him and we sent him back to class and Karen who works with me turned to me and said "You've been Scrammed!" cute huh.

3 Experiences with First Graders

#1 An older sister brings her first grade brother into the office at lunch time crying because he is hurt and she says "Take good care of him, he's special to me he's my brother." Her friend next to her says "Yeah, next year I will have my brother here and he is special to me too."

#2 A First grade boy is sick in class and so the teacher brings him to the office. We call the mom and yes she will come and pick him up. We send him to class to get his backpack and he comes back to the office to wait. He is not waiting in the sick room but with us in "the purple chairs". He waits awhile like 25 min and then lunch starts so the office/sick room is full with the doors opening and shutting every minute..... We are both so busy I come up the hall from the teachers lounge area and I notice he is gone. Karen has been in and out of the sick room and I ask her if his mother came. She says no. I grab the clipboard and say "well, if she came she did not sign him out". We open the emergency card binder pull out his card and Karen calls the house phone. No one answered so she leaves a message and as she is holding the pink card getting ready to call the mom's cell the mom comes in and says I found my child walking out front. Thank goodness we had noticed him gone and had called and was calling. That's all I can say...well and thank goodness she came when she did. We asked her to tell him the rules. (He said he got tired of waiting.)

#3 Each grade level during the day hold their own recess and during the First grade recess on Friday a boy got mad and left recess and went around the side of the building. Luckily we had a boy notice and he did the right thing but running to the office to tell us. We immediately intercom-ed across the whole school for him to come to the office and the crossing guard who was there waiting for kindergarten to get over heard the announcement, saw him and brought him back. He said he was going to walk home. Scary.....he was heading for Redwood Road and he lives in Sunrise Meadows a subdivision way over by the high school. The boy who noticed him leave and did the right thing by running and telling us lives by me and is the cutest boy.

Now this is the cutest porch on the block

Sorry it's so little. It's all I can do.

This is Faith's porch and it is the cutest!