It has begun!!

Well! I have been waiting for weeks and weeks, but I can now finally show everyone what has been going on!!

The slab for the basement was poured on Friday, and now all they need to do is put up the basement walls. If there was a better picture of the background, you could see there is A LOT of dirt. This was an amazing undertaking. The kids are extremely excited and thought it was completely awesome...as they should!! This house is going to be mammoth! What you see in the picks is the first

of three floors!! This is Bjak's man domain, and basically it is larger than our first house!! Crazy man!!

The really, really funny thing was that when I went to the ramp end of the hole, I looked down and could not stop laughing. The pad resembles an outline of the state of.....TEXAS!!! Haahaaa! That was the biggest gut buster for me!

Anyway, we have progress, and we are all very excited! Hope all is going well for everyone out there in blogger land. Hope to have another post soon!! XOXO!

Must be time to blog!!!

Hello bloggers!! Yes, it has been a painfully long time since my last entry. Reason, you ask? Well, my hope was that my next entry would be about the house we are going to build here in Farmington. Hmmm....if that has not happened yet, I wonder why there is not a blog??!!!

No house as of yet. Land deal...done. Plans...done. Dirt work...not so much done. Apparently there have been several stones thrown in the way according to my sources. However, fingers are still crossed that something will happen soon although that would most assuredly mean there will NOT be a move-in date scheduled for this summer!!!

Craziness abounds here. The weather, that thing that is never consistant, has been VERY nice for a few days suddenly got gloomy today. Lots of little showers here and there and no sunshine...sob, sob, sob!! Thinking that the cold front that came through should be the last one of the year although I have been told that it can still be chilly up to the beginning of May and I know it will be chilly at night even into July!

School. Hmmm...things seem to be going well for Joshua. No one has tried to kick him over to another school recently. He is now on a mood stabilizer, which does seem to help him. Since he has been on it, he now refers to himself as "the new Joshua." Whatever works for him and keeps him a happy kid is fine by me!!

Riley is doing well. She has become a pretty good reader and has also shown a really good knack for math! Go girl! We need a female in this family with good math skills. There is a reason I am an English teacher!

My school has had very few changes. I actually had an unfortunate "run-in" with my principal, and for a while there was wondering if I would have a job come the next week. Hard to explain, but not very professional for a principal to talk to his employees the same way in which he talks to a 14 year-old-kid. I, to no one's surprise, did not take that very well and made sure to tell him so!! Ballsy move on my behalf, but I did it anyway. Since then, no probs, but I know have the other high school calling to see if I am interested in a possible position. HECK YES!!! I went over for an informal interview, and all went very well. Nothing about a position will be official for a while, so it is a waiting game. That is fine since I have LOTS of end-of-year stuff going on anyway.

Oh, well. Just here doing a wait and see for a few more weeks!! Hope all is well in all your time zones!! Take care and post ya later!! : )

A White Christmas...two days late! : (

Well, we were expecting it, but we were not sure exactly when it was going to happen. The snow was supposed to be headed our way for the last few days, and it finally made it today! We woke up to lots of white flakes falling. Unfotunately for the kids, they are both a bit under the weather and are stuck in the house playing games in their pjs!

Christmas...or more than one in 2007

Christmas!!! It is the time of year that the kids love...especially if they have had a good one since they know that Santa watches their every move. And boy does he in our household!

We were lucky enough this year to have Christmas with a large number of our family. The only ones missing were the ones way up in Washington state!!

Our first Xmas was at my mom's house. My step-dad, Pinky, was able to come up from Lubbock to join us and was kind enough to make a pit stop in Clovis, NM to pick up my nephew, Masenn. Masenn and his mom are getting ready to move up to Fort Collins, CO, so it was great that he was able to come up and have some fun with his cousins. Unfortunately, they are lucky if they get to see each other once a year, so it was great that they could play some before the big move. And I know that my bro, Scott, was happy to have him up with everyone as well!

The second Xmas was on Christmas day. We had Bjak's dad, Mike, and step-mom, Robin - the other one, his sister, Summer, her husband, Scott - yes, my kids have two Uncle Scotts!! - and baby Colten. They came over for Bjak's special xmas breakfast and then it was off to the presents!

It was kinda funny, but Summer wanted to go one at a time with opening everything, but if we had done that we would not have finised until after 2pm! There was just sooooo much for everyone to open! And the excitement of the kids was on overdrive, so the one at a time was just not a option!! Anyway, after that we had our special Christmas lunch over Mike and Robin's house, and then we all passed out from all the food, present opening, and festivity

Hope you all had as nice a Christmas as we did!!

Xmas Singing Troupe!

Kisses to you all!! I am currently a very proud momma! My little Jman was able to do something he has NEVER - I mean NEVER - been able to do since the time he was first able to entertain! He paid attention! I know that sounds silly, but if you had ever been to an Xmas program featuring Joshua Jakino and his class, you would totally understand!

This was the first year he was able to sing the words, do the hand movements, and NOT get in trouble. We have had two years where he was banned from performing and one year where he smacked people who were singing and jumped off the risers! This is a pretty big deal folks! : )

Apparently my little muscial virtuoso loves his music class, so I am sure it helped him keep his focus! And since we now live in a town where there are grandparents, Pappa and Grandma were able to come not only to Joshua's performance but also to Riley's, too.

Riley and Joshua sang the same songs..smart teacher...but the physical arrangement was a bit different. Apparently with Riley's class they have the same philosophy as most of Lowery now...gender grouping is the best option! All the girls were on one side of the tree and the boys were on the other!! : )

Anyway, just thought I would share my pride. My kids love music just like their momma and sing all the time, too!

Of course the REALLY funny part of going up to the school for anthing pertaining to the kids is the artwork in the hall. Take a look at Joshua's art. This was the wish list the kids made for Xmas...and of course it is meant to look like him! : )I know it is a bit difficult to see, but here is what Jman wants for Christmas:

1. A little brother! Yikes!!

2. A new house

3. A new book - that's my boy

4. and this one is FUNNY....God as his dad....Wow! Brandon has some changes to make!! haahaa!

Jakino Classroom

Here it is! I finally took pics of my classroom to share with all as well as pics of a few of the folks who now influence my daily life at FHS! Sorry it took so long!

Well, here is my classroom door! Exciting, eh? We were at the very beginning of door decorating contest, but I decided to leave it all up still since I like the wrapping paper!! I thought it was cool to have a candy cane door.

The inside is just so much like what I have always done...there is stuff everywhere! I have the computer up at the front of the room, which is kinda weird for me since I like being at the side of the room, but the

connection is either under a chalk board, at the front of the room, or in the back where I have the couch and the vocab wall. So, I am front and center every morning and those poor kids are looking at my mug all the time!

The couch in the back is one I inherited. It was really funny because when I moved in my department head was shocked that I would want to keep such a thing in my room! The kids love it and are always wanting to sit on it and so their work. Anything to get the work done, I say!

My office is connected to the back of the classroom. Yes, I have my own private office. Way cool and they spared no expense as you can tell by my loverly office chair. Gotta love the rat eaten hole on the arm! I don't care! It is my own little space that has my pics of my buds, notes from students over the years, and my boys...yes, my U2 buddies are with me everyday.

The hallway is so funny!! This monster sized corridor is where my class is located. And this photo only shows the one end. But what you should notice is the white space!! If you look carefully, you will see that there is NOTHING on the walls! There is of course one exception. On the right side of the pic you will see my room...the one with kid work on the wall! It is so polar opposite of Lowery. Lowery kinda looks like a paper mill exploded in the halls and yet here is looks like an asylum...hmm...interesting comparison!! : )

My mentor, Mr. Jeff Young, has been at the school since 1982!! Yes, 1982! I looked through Bjak's yearbook and saw Young in there and then had to ask, "How freakin' long have you been here?" He just laughed. He is a pretty cool mentor, though. Each time he tells me good morning, that counts for at least 30 minutes of mentoring time! : )

My neighbor across the hall is Orla Fincher. She is a crack up and loves to steal my ideas and use them for math class. JK! She is the one person that I have been able to bounce ideas off of and share! We don't even teach the same subject but that is what has made it so cool. She has a daughter who is coming up next year, and the funny thing is her daughter has already asked that she get signed up to be in my class...and the dad, Ed Fincher, is in my department!! Poor dad! The funny thing about Ed is when I was sent for Lowery three or four years ago to a Pre-AP confernce, I chose to go to ABQ and stay with mom, etc. Well, Ed was in my group for our project. When I asked him if he was there, since he looked so familiar, I said I had gone and everyone called me "Texas" since I was the only one from out of state. He looked at me and said, " I remember you!!" It was the nickname and not my face that tipped him off!

My saving grace is my new pal Barbara Silvermith. She is a riot. She is the new freshmen counselor and she works her tail off with schedules, counseling and being the 9th grade administrator all the time. She makes me laugh and to make her day better I think I make her laugh all the time. She is a very, very neat lady and I am very glad to have been able to meet her and hang out with her...she is a part of the happy hour bunch!

This is it for now! Hope to hear from you all soon and hope ya like my class. It has been an interesting place to be everyday!!

The Education Department for the State of New Mexico...

Okay, there are no pics for this post simply because it would have been very odd for me to have taken a pic of this little man from the state who came to check out the campus this week. I have walked into a repair job. Basically what that means is that the school I am now working for is under state inspection because they did not meet AYP for the last two years. When that happens, they send out people to help you "fix" your problem areas. Well, there are 23 items assessed by AYP and we failed ONE of them. That is all it takes appartently to have an issue when the state comes in and checks everything out. Interesting, eh?

Anyway, the little man...and I mean little (he was only about 4'11) came to the school yesterday to check us out. His visit was the reason in which I could not go to Santa Fe for the conference...the cool conference...because he, the little man, might want to talk to me.

Well, yesterday mornings, since I am feeling much better, I was standing at my classroom door and Mr. Driskell, the principal, and the little man walked by. I said my hello and thought nothing else of it...until after second period when I was told he "hand selected my class" to do an observation. Yippie for me!!

I do class the same way I always do...we start with the crazy vocab lesson I learned last year from Region 10 with the little cards. I make the kids stand up/sit down when the find the correct word so that I have a visual for when they get the information. Then we did our test review. Then we talked about our upcoming project. Then he left. The nice thing was we saw him laugh several times... my motto is that if a kid does not laugh at least once in class then I don't have their attention. Well, I guess we had his!!

Well...the story goes on...two more hours later, Mr. Driskell, the principal, comes and says, "Did anyone tell you?" Okay, does that sound like a good lead-in to you?? No! Anyway, I was oblivious as to what he was talking about and said so. The little man not only wanted to do his observation but he also wanted to interview me during my prep! Yippie times two!!

Anyway, we talked, he ran into me (that was odd) and he only asked me a couple of questions....

Well, I have now had two teachers come up to me and say, "Good job!!" Why, you may ask? The reason is that apparently we just passed out "inspection" with flying colors!! Rock on!