May 2

It's Thursday, and I've been out at my mom and dad's all week. There's really not much to do out there. I've been talking with my brother and his wife all I can since they will only be here for a few more days. My nephews were so cute. When they told my brother they wanted to come to Papa's 80th birthday party, we thought maybe they had been prompted by their other set of grandparents. After talking to them, it really sounded like it was their idea to come. I actually got choked up when one of them (now 17 years old, voice deep with young adulthood) said, "Hi, Papa!" while he gave him a big hug. It was precious.

Now that we're in the month of May, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. My husband may get the week at the end of the school year back because of a bill introduced that does not make it mandatory to make up inclement weather days (snow days). He's ecstatic, and truthfully, so am I. If he gets out a week before me, he will have time to get the house in order and rest a bit. He will be doing most of the driving (in fact, possibly all the driving). I have never seen him get tired when he is behind the wheel of a car. I really don't mind driving, he just seems to end up behind the wheel.

I'm struggling at work. While I believe my boss wants to do what's best for our students, it requires me to allow kids to do whatever they want to do. Today, I had a student come into my 7th period class. She was in class 2 or 3 days last week. Today is the first day she has come this week. She walked in, took out a laptop, and started looking at music and other completely irrelevant websites. I asked her to get started. Three more times I had to redirect her on the computer. (If I had asked her to put the computer away at that point, she would have left earlier than she did.) Twenty minutes before class was over, she put the computer away, paced for 5 minutes, the walked out of class. And. There. Is. Nothing. I can do about it. : ( I'm frustrated to say the least.