Irons in the fire, dogs in the basement

Is that how the expression goes? I mean about the irons part? Either way, we no longer have dogs trapped under our house. I heard one while I was getting ready one weekend so we went out to the boarded up basement, took the board down and of course.....nothing. Well...we got smart and decided to get some old hotdogs (clearly we wouldn't waste good ones) and threw one under the house and left one at the opening. 10 minutes later, a black lassie was sitting in the yard chillin' like Bob Dylan. I started screaming since it was out my window...I ran around to get shoes to close the hole while my roommates stared out the window. Lo and behold, there was the brown one, the one who really had been under there for 4 weeks to the day....needless to say, we're not sure how he survived. Before I could close the board, the dumb thing went back under there. We threw the rest of the hotdogs all over our lawn so when he came out we were quickly able to board it back up and take a few pictures to prove to the plumber that we are not, in fact, crazy yankees.

The school sweetheart pageant came and went. No winners here. Oh well. Next year I am going to pick the bad kids to be in it because whoever is picked if they are good they turn bad; if they are bad, they stay bad. My king this year was super sweet, but suddenly turned into a big ol' baby. I don't DEAL with crying children. He crumpled up someone's paper, got his clip moved and cried for 30 minutes. My principal got sick of hearing him and wanted to whoop him or call his mama because he would not stop boo-who crying. I'm sick of babies crying--I make them go stand in the hallway to cry which usually gets them to stop before they get there. I have little sympathy for boo-who'ers. Makes you want me to teach your kids, huh?

The end of my two-year commitment to teach for america is almost up. Who would have thought. It has been a crazy ride, one I wouldn't trade for the world. Crazy enough in fact, I'm not quite done with the adventure. I'm staying here another year...finish this ed masters and get more teaching experiences under my belt. I love life here, not enough to live here forever, but it's pretty great right now. In fact, only one more professional Saturday left in my existence of needing to attend professional Saturdays! In February they announced that 20 of us or so were nominated for the Sue Lehmann Excellence in Teaching Award. While I wasn't named a finalist, it was still an honor to be nominated by peers or other corps members.

And it's also official that I will be basking in the wonderful midwestern sun somewhere on the shores of a Minnesota lake this summer!! While I was ultimately rejected from a staff position that I had hoped for in the Delta, I am still excited at the thought of not being stressed out or crazy busy sitting on the lake. I.frickin.love.Minnesota.summers. Cannot wait.

Two weeks ago we enjoyed a mildly frigid spring break trip to Destin, Florida. We drove, it is roughly 7 hours. Somehow we made it take 11.5. I think this was because we went through Louisiana (completely unnecessary) and got stuck in standstill traffic outside of Mobile, Al (WHAT?!) in which we went 6 miles in 30 minutes. However, we had a great car ride/trip. Did you know IHOP DOES in fact have ice cream? Take that Erik Stonestrom and scarring me for life for never having been to an IHOP before. We rented a house in the middle of spring break spectacularness. It was a nice house, even for 9 people, despite the raccoons that took up residency on the second story deck outside of my bedroom (we found this out AFTER I left the door open for 30 minutes because it was hot). My kids would say, "they nasty." And they were. You should only see raccoons briefly before you run them over with your car. The temp in Florida didn't get over 65 and was plenty windy, but all in all, not bad. We drank too much, made bad choices, acted like college students...you know, typical teacher stuff. I spent the last weekend of break in Jackson enjoying the luxury of Redbox movies from the grocery store and reading outside getting one helluva suntan. Go fig that one would get more sun in the 'sip than they would in Florida. My Uncle Mike and I ran a St. Paddy's Day 5K around the capital building in Jackson on Saturday...we decided at 10 o'clock Friday night. It was great although I think next year we need costumes! I went to the parade in the afternoon to check out this sweet potato queen business....someone help me, how can I sign up to be one? My life long aspirations (they just started)....Lastly, the highlight of my weekend. A crawfish boil with Mike and Gretchen at their neighbors. I would stay in Mississippi FOREVER just for things like crawfish boils. It was amazing. And don't even think about judging it before you try it...I know, I know, I'm the LAST person that should be saying that.

Easter weekend is here...the last break of the school year, ugh. However, one perk of teaching in the south was the ability to teach my kids that Easter is not about eggs and candy! Throw in a bit of that religion and teach the real meaning of Easter. The big news from this week. Damn thieves visited my classroom in the form of 5 and 6 year-olds. Late last week my jump drive was taken. Now, on Tuesday, my eyebrow ring was taken off of my desk. UGH, I was PISSED! I didn't realize it until after kids left. My Principal told me to call a few parents before it got too far. So, I did that. Well, no luck. The next day, during a DRAMATIC display of lesson-learning, all children's clips were on red, I had the paddle from the office showing them just what it looked like (of course I didn't use it, "they know you ain't gonna use it, Ms. Ward. Until they think you gone use it, it won't make a bit of difference."). I hit it on the table hard enough for them to realize that it wasn't going to tickle. It's practically a 2x4 mind you, and is the smallest one I think she has. Anyway, during this charade, two girls raised their hands...one claiming my jump drive was on her mama's dresser, the other claiming my eyebrow ring was on top of her refrigerator. Well, they said they were willing to go to the office to call their mama's to bring it back right then. Let's be real, these are both children of parents I talked to the night before hearing every story from both parent and child about who had it. To make this longgg story shorter, all parents had meetings in the office with me, the principal and the student. One student lied that she had it as soon as we got to the office. Her mama is FURIOUS with me, but hey, I didn't ask her to raise her hand in front of the whole class saying she had it. Moral of the story, I didn't teach on Wednesday morning AT ALL. I was in the office most of the time. I have one parent that likes me and one that could care less if her daughter passes. I have kids lying to their parents about this, that, and the other thing. And to top it all off...I still don't have my jump drive or my eyebrow ring. Damn.

"Goin' to Jackson..." tomorrow to enjoy a little bit of my break. Need to run some errands (and buy a new jump drive and eyebrow ring) and I want to go see a movie. It's going to be a BIG weekend! We're having a little Delta family dinner on Sunday after church....so I won't be home and celebrating Easter, but I will be at church with all 12 other members and having egg bake for lunch, OBVIOUSLY. I love my life...and eggbake...and crawdads.....not together.

Over and out. It's late, I'm tired and my hair smells like bonfire and is making me sick. Happy belated birthday to Grandma Davis and Happy Easter to you all (all 3 people that still actually check this thing)!